No Peace Amongst The Stars
by Highvalour
Summary: Space was not as the idealists thought, no prosperity or enlightenment. Humanity has been at war, with itself and with alien races, since it first left the Sol System. The Innies, the Zealots and the turians failed to beat the UNSC and Shepard will be damned if he's gonna let some ship with a god complex succeed. Not on his watch.
1. Prologue Penal Squad - Pt1

**_Finally tweaked and worked on this idea enough that I'm making it a full fic, separate from Chaos In The Cosmos. Second chapter should be up by the end of the week and I may start a thread in my forum dedicated to serving as a Codex of sorts, outlining differences in technology between the Systems Alliance and the UNSC._**

**_IMPORTANT NOTE: This story changes the date for the Human/Covenant War to_** **_2279 to 2307 and ignores the events of Halo 4. The Forward Unto Dawn was never located… Other changes will be detailed as story progresses._**

**_Another chapter, another attempt to entertain you all. I honestly do not have anything else to add, so on with the show!_**

**_Halo belongs to Microsoft Studios_**

**_Mass Effect belongs to belongs to Bioware_**

**_XXXXX_**

XX Colonial Capital; Shanxi, Shanxi-Theta Cluster - 2557 XX

"Dammit, where's our tech support?" Quentius Qui'in, a squad commander within the 43rd Marine Division, roared at his Communications Expert. The Turians had been fighting tooth and claw for nearly six months, taking territory street by street and room by room.

This new race, Humans, were a contradictory race from what he'd seen. Their weapons were crude and basic, the mass accelerators overheating quickly and their barriers being a joke. Their military seemed pathetic to Qui'in, but their transport and communication technology was impressive enough. To say nothing of that trice damned AI.

"Command says engineers are on-route, we're to hold position and disable the defensive turrets." Lantar Oraka, Communications Expert and second-in-command, reported once he got off the radio. A quick beeping indicated that a transition was being sent and Lantar back away from the corner, around which several human built turrets began firing if anyone got to close, and took it. "Good news, Sir. Those Salarian programs worked. We've hacked into human communications and data transmissions."

"Took long enough! We've been here nearly six months and they've only just broke the encoding, what took so long?" Quentius spat as the turrets gave off another warning volley.

"It's that damn AI, it codes all messages and is so alien our VI programs can't deal with it." Lantar explained as one of the squad members got caught by turret fire, he hadn't ducked back behind cover fast enough, and was torn apart. "It's taken the programmers this long just to find a way to listen in without the AI finding out and bombarding us with false results."

Before either could continue the building above them trembled as something heavy impacted it. A quick check in with troops stationed outside the building led to the team making a tactical retreat as it appeared that Command had decided to launch a debris strike down on their location without warning. As they reached the building's main lobby the sounds of gunfire rang out. Readying their weapons and rushing forward the Turians found their fellow soldiers dead and roughly three dozen humans in heavy grey armour waiting for them.

"By the Spirits." Quentius gulped as the wreckage of a Turian cruiser burned up in the atmosphere, its silhouette disenable in the sky above. Shuttles, human design, descended to drop off squad after squad or to strafe turian positions. Large metal pods, either orbital strikes or some kind of quick drop for supplies, raced across the skyline to crash down in groups of five or six.

"Take cover!" Lantar screamed as the humans opened fire. Their automatic weapons suffered from the same disadvantages as other human weapons, poor cooling and weak kinetic transfer, but the shielding was something else.

Rather than the traditional blue pulse, blue pulse failure the standard human soldier's shielding had shown these troops came equipped with some kind of alien energy shielding. The sand grain sized projectiles the turian rifles fired incinerated on contact with a yellowish burst of electrical energy. As the turian troops took cover back inside the building's lobby the humans advanced. Some moving from cover to cover up the front, to draw attention and fire, while the others either flanked to the sides or took up a defensive position covering the rear in case of turian reinforcements.

As their weapons overheated the humans either discarded them for the weapons of fallen turians or swapped out for auxiliary ones carried on their person. Turian troops don't break, normally, but Quentius' troops were tired, they were shaken and they were facing troops of a much higher calibre then than had been faced before this. As the advancing troops gained more and more ground Quentius considered ordering a retreat back into the underground tunnel system, at least until the flanking enemies breeched in through the walls behind his position and opened fire into his men's exposed backs.

"Where's our support? How are these troops getting planet side?!"Quentius screamed Lantar only to see his comms expert go down as over a dozen rounds pounded into his shields, punched through his armour and shredded his skull and brain.

XX Orbit Over Shanxi, Shanxi-Theta Cluster (Fifteen Minutes Before) XX

The first sign the captain of the turian cruiser Honourable Duty had that something was wrong was when half of her analysts started frantically moving their talons over holographic displays and yelling at one another about things like 'high-wave spectrum radiation' and 'distortive anomalistic readings'. The second was when another of the techies began screaming that nearly a dozen unknown vessels had just appeared out of nowhere less than two thousand kilometres off their starboard bow. The final clue that things where well on their way to being FUBAR was their helmsman firing the thrusters to get them out of the way as these unknown ships opened fire.

"Enemy vessels on display now!" The captain ordered. The main holographic display, which normally showcased the ship itself, switched over to displaying the enemies. Unlike the long almost starfighter shaped turian vessels these enemy vessels resembled a series of hexagons that increased in size as one moved from the bow to the stern.

"Another anomaly detected, significantly larger!" A techie reported before replacing the dozen or so enemy vessels with a single image. A solid ring of energy, almost five hundred metres wide, that turned pitch black for a split second before a hulking kilometre and a half long monstrosity of a ship emerged.

"Is that a one of their Dreadnoughts?" Someone asked softly, no effort to hide the awe and fear in the speaker's voice. The voice expressed the hidden concerns amongst the crew, who or what could build that? There was no way the humans, whose Mass Effect technology was so primitive, could have constructed such a vessel and… And the way it had emerged from that void… Had the Hierarchy provoked war with some unknown advanced race by attacking humanity, some kind of client race?

"Energy build-up detected emanating from the enemy dreadnought!" Someone warned.

The Honourable Duty's helmsman tried to her the ship out of line with the enemy Dreadnought but when whatever the energy had been was discharged the ship shook violently, warning sirens screamed and the ship lost all manner of propulsion. Drifting dead in her captain screamed for a status report.

"Shield strength down to twenty sev- Twenty fo- … Shields down to under one/fifth power." Someone gasped.

"We've lost thrusters!" Another reported.

"I know thrusters are down, tell engineering to get them back online.!" The captain ordered.

"No… I mean they are gone! Completely destroyed!" The techie snapped back in panic. "Engineering as well!"

"We've got hull breeches on decks six through fifteen in their stern sectors. Sensors on decks one through five and sixteen through twenty are down as well." The captain had didn't even bother to register who said that, she just tried to process it. "Deck twenty one has partial sensors and is showing temperatures of…. T-That can't be right…"

"What!?" The captain demanded to know. She needed to know what had happened to her ship.

"Over twenty-seven hundred degrees, Ma'am." That reply did what four tours against Terminus slavers, two colonial insurrections and a violent husband had failed to do. It broke the captain.

"H-how…? It was a… It was a glancing blow… How?" It was all she could ask, how? How could a race with weapons like that exist? How could the Hierarchy fight ships like that monstrosity? How?"

"Captain! Captain our orbit is decaying fast!" it was the helmsman. He was saying something but she wasn't paying attention. She was just watching the holographic displays, that showed more and more anomalies opening and more and more ships emerging.

Someone was ordering a general evacuation, saying they were a sitting target, but she wasn't listening. A talon gripped her forearm, it was her second in command and he was telling her to move.

"How? How….? How, how, how, how…?" The captain repeated, over and over, as she watched the screens and resisted his attempts to get her out. She didn't want to survive, she didn't want to survive if it meant facing a war against these unknown beings.

"Sorry Ma'am but we need to go NOW." Her second apologised before punching as hard as he could and knocking her out cold so he could get her to safety.

XX London; Earth, Sol System – 2572 XX

"John Shepard, you have been found of assault, aggravated assault, assault with a deadly weapon, assaulting a police officer, destruction of public property, unlawful behaviour, resisting arrest, unlawful assembly and membership of an illegal grouping." The judge announced as he looked down upon the youth before him.

One of nearly forty people arrested following last month's Block War. The dossier provided with the case included that he was suspected of more than twenty weapons charges and shootings but there was insufficient evidence to charge him.

"According to your file you turned eighteen yesterday, congratulations." The Judge noted snidely. As such you are no longer in State Care… Normally kids in leaving the foster system have to serve mandatory military service for eighteen months but it looks like you'll be spending the next few years in prison… Do you have anything to say?"

"I think some of my stitches reopened." John muttered. The bruises and cuts that covered his face made it painful to speak. "You wanna hurry the hell up?"

"Looking through your record, I see quite a list of achievements." The judge sighed as he brought up images from the rioting. "You took part in a Block War, putting a lot of people in hospital, and then you led nine police officers on a two hour chase. Put four of those officers in the hospital and even managed to take a seven year veteran hostage… If the floor hadn't given way beneath you I don't think you'd be standing here today, do you?"

"No, what's your point?" John asked, glaring at the judge with his non-swollen eye. "And I hope the city gets a refund for Heavenly Haven, building code ain't up to scratch."

"You're looking at sixteen years, minimum, for this as you are unwilling to testify against other members of the Reds." The Judge explained as he replaced the images of Shepard during the Block War with several pictures of high ranking members of the Reds gang. "If you agree I could remove years from the sentence, last chance."

"I'm no snitch." John all but spat, he wouldn't turn. Reds had been good to him, he owed the gang. "So sentence me and get it done!"

"Sixteen years minimum, seems like a waste… Is it the violence or the sense of belonging that made you join up with the Reds?" The Judge asked as he banished the images and began to enter the sentence. Not bothering to wait for an answer he continued on. "In recognition of your capabilities, and the need for able bodied soldiers, I sentence you under the Task Force X Act 2543 to serve on the front lines in support of our Sangheili allies against Jiralhanae expansion. Your sentence is to be commuted to five years of service, time added or deducted based on deposition and action."

"Ha, a 'Suicide Squad'? Bring it on." John said in between harsh laughs. "I'll serve my five years and be back on the streets before you know it. I ain't afraid of a little violence."

"Spoken like a fool who's never seen real battle." The Judge snorted as he signalled to security to remove John from the court. "I wonder if that bravado will make it through basic training."

XX Unpronounceable Jiralhanae Controlled Planet (Nine Months later) XX

Shepard's Penal Squad took cover as Kig-Yar snipers opened fire on their position. As rounds ripped through the rubble the squad had hidden behind, Shepard saw their CO take a hit to the throat.

"Dammit, fucking Jackals." Spat Corporal McArthur. The man was the only actual UNSC marine left in the squad now that the Sergeant had kicked it. Rising from cover and opening fire, McArthur screamed insults at the Kig-Yar before two shots to the chest did him in.

"Fuck." Shepard muttered before crawling over to McArthur's corpse and taking one of his grenades. Watching for enemy fire, Shepard found where one of the snipers was hidden and tossed the grenade through the hole the Kig-Yar was firing from. Diving back behind cover and moving quickly to avoid shots from the other snipers, Shepard was rewarded when the grenade's bang was accompanied by a shriek of agony from the Kig-Yar. A moment later several more grenades detonated, taking out the rest of the snipers.

"Not bad kid." Called out Corporal Jones, most senior remaining member of the squad and now de-facto commander. Moving out into the open, Jones signalled for the others to move up. As Shepard followed, he stopped to pry a particle rifle from a Kig-Yar's hand. Turning to see what was keeping him, Jones nodded. "Good idea. Right boys, find their corpses and grab any weapons you think you can use."

As the squad moved down a deserted street Shepard was ordered to take point. Trying to watch every window at once, Shepard realised that their location was a perfect ambush site. Holstering his MA-ICWv4, Shepard activated the scope on the particle rifle and scanned further down the street. What he saw made his blood run cold. A dozen Jiralhanae making their way towards the squad, led by a chieftain wielding a massive hammer.

"Corporal… We got incoming." Shepard gulped as he offered the rifle to Jones.

"What is it?" Jones asked as he took the rifle and tried to work its scope.

"Dozen Brutes, plus a chief." Shepard told him before pointing to the surrounding buildings. "If they keep coming this way we've in a good position to ambush them."

"Right, take that rifle and get up high. Find somewhere that you can see everything and when I give the signal blow that chieftain's brain out." Jones ordered before directing the rest of the squad to take positions.

Rushing to get up above the street and find somewhere to shoot from, Shepard climbed up rubble from a damaged building and hunkered down. As the Jiralhanae grew nearer, Shepard lined up a shot on the chieftain and waited for the signal. As the Jiralhanae passed where Shepard split from the squad, several grenades came flying into view. Taking that as the signal, Shepard dropped the chieftain and aimed turned to fire at a nearby Jiralhanae. As the Jiralhanae scattered for cover and came under fire from his squad mates, Shepard looked up from the scope to search for another target and spotted another group of Brutes rushing down the street to reinforce the ambushed group.

"Ah fuck me." Shepard cursed before opening fire on them. Two died before they spotted his position and began weaving to avoid him getting a bead on them. One disappeared into a doorway only to emerge a minute later with a fuel rod gun levelled at his position. Diving for cover as the Brute fired Shepard cursed again. "Oh fuck me sideways."

Down below, the rest of the squad found itself struggling to deal with the additional Jiralhanae. But as more of their kind died, the remaining Jiralhanae began to go berserk and rush from cover only to be gunned down from several positions. By the time Shepard recovered from the explosion and made it down to ground level both sides were mostly dead. Targeting one of the two remaining enemies, Shepard opened fire with his MA5E. Jones and another private targeted the other, emptying the last of their magazines into the beast. With all visible hostiles down, Shepard holstered his rifle and made his way over to the others.

"How far left to go?" Shepard called before something to his right snarled. Turning Shepard could only watch as a wounded Jiralhanae lashed out with its Spiker, the bayonets slicing through his helmet and cutting deeply into his face. Turning the enraged Jiralhanae fired off a barrage at Jones and the private before turning back to the injured Shepard. As it raised the Spiker to impale him, a bright blue orb struck its shoulder. The stolen plasma grenade detonated and saved Shepard's life.

"You alive kid?" Jones called out as he made his way over. Crouching beside Shepard and removing the injured man's helmet, Jones inspected the damage. "Shit kid, that thing cut deep."

_**XXXXX**_

_**I'm dyslexic, so please point out any mistakes in spelling or grammar [I spell things the way they do in England and Ireland, so some things may look off to Americans]. Please leave your opinion via review or send them via PM, I'd like to know what you think. **_

_**Well, I think that's everything I've gotta say so, hope you enjoyed the chapter.**_

_**This is Highvalour saying bye and thanks for reading**_


	2. Prologue Penal Squad - Pt2

_**Another chapter, another attempt to entertain you all. I honestly do not have anything else to add, so on with the show!**_

_**Halo belongs to Microsoft Studios**_

_**Mass Effect belongs to belongs to Bioware**_

_**XXXXX**_

XX Unpronounceable Jiralhanae Controlled Planet – 2573 XX

Jones did his best to treat Shepard's wounds but the man wasn't a medic so his treatment was little more than washing the cuts with disinfectant and coating the cuts in fast hardening Medi-Gel to prevent protect the injury from dirt or debris. Once the gel had hardened he stuck Shepard with a local anaesthetic to kill the intense pain from the two deep gashes that marred his cheek and chin.

"C'mon kid, let's go." Jones said gruffly as he pulled Shepard to his feet and handed the younger man his gun. Unable to reply, numbness and hardened gel made moving his mouth impossible, Shepard simply took the weapon and surveyed the street. "C'mon, there might be more of them and we're a long way from friendlies."

'_Useless plastic piece of shit.' _Shepard seethed silently as he looked at his mangled helmet before tossing it way._ 'Just my fucking luck, get drafted three months AFTER they swap out the old armoured Battle Dress Uniforms for these hardsuit pieces of shit!'_

Making his way over to one of his former squad mate's bodies Shepard pried the dead man's helmet off and stuck it on.

"I thought those things are a package deal? You know, no mix and matching!" Jones asked as Shepard activated his wrist mounted computer and began typing away, pausing every few seconds to scan the new helmet. The turians called them something that translated as 'All Purpose Data and Flash Fabricating Tools', seems they invented the word just for it.

The 'All Purpose Data and Flash Fabricating Tool' was one of those alien technologies that even the more hard-line xenophobes accepted, as long as it was produced in a human factory. The lighter weight, more powerful processing power and ability be weaponized via thermal or electrical bursts meant it had quickly replaced the old TACPADS.

The human ones varied in quality and processing power from about level with your basic personal computer to 'I just hacked your website with the push of a button, while sitting here sipping my Frappuccino'. The basic model the UNSC got after tendering the contract fell closer to the former unfortunately but looked similar enough to the good ones that the Reds had arranged for a higher end one to be smuggled to Shepard for him to use. The OPI Technologies Mk.3 Omni-Tool® was god send for him.

"Where'd you learn to do that?" Jones asked in astonishment when Shepard's IFF replaced Wilkins' one on his display. When Shepard ignored him and retrieved the particle rifle Jones just shrugged and pulled up his own computer. "We're about six clicks from the forward outpost, c'mon."

The pair moved mostly in silence, Jones had tried to hold a one sided conversation at first but a withering glare from Shepard shut him up. Shepard didn't care if Jones came from a Dark World, he didn't care that their planet's thriving economy had dried up after they declared independence from Earth and had a UNSC enforced embargo slapped on them and he sure as hell didn't care that Jones was a teacher by trade who was only here to get UEG citizenship.

_If these suits didn't have recorders in them I'd frag you right now and say I was the only survivor… shit!' _Shepard thought before face palming. The suits had recording equipment in the helmets and once he got back they'd see he'd hacked the Wilkins' helmet and taken it and that'd lead to questions about the Omni-Tool® and… And…_ "How the fuck was I gonna explain the undamaged helmet covering these cuts?'_

"I've been thinking, maybe we should get off the streets. Use the buildings for cover… We are just two guys now." Jones said as he pointed towards a large tower, partly demolished, whose wreckage formed a crude bridge between two other towers. "And if we use those we can cut some time off our trek."

Letting Jones take point, and ditching the particle rifle since the ICWs automatic fire would be more effective in the corridors, Shepard made his way up the steps leading to the closer tower.

Progress through up the tower was slow, damage had rendered many corridors and stairwells collapsed or blocked and they often ended up scaling rubble to advance up a story. Upon reaching the level that held the makeshift bridge Shepard began to reconsider crossing. Sure the massive section of collapsed building weighed who knew how many tonnes but Shepard couldn't shake that old vid cliché of the unstable walkway that threatened to collapse under the hero's weight as he crossed. The knowledge that this wasn't some Jovian action movie, but real life, made that image all the worse.

Staying low to avoid being spotted by any hostiles Shepard slowly advanced, heart pounding in what he could feel of his ears. Reaching halfway without any sign of the rubble shifting Shepard beckoned for Jones to follow and moved forward. As they searched for a way to safely descend the two levels between them and the next bridge the distinctive growls of a Kig-Yar rang out.

Shepard dropped flat and began frantically scanning the area for the hostile but spotted nothing. Jones, who was hunkered down near some rubble that had fallen from the floor above, leaned out over a hole in the wall and signalled for Shepard to join him.

"Sniper, below us." He hissed as he nodded out the hole, where the barrel of a particle rifle could be seen sticking out of a window a level below them. "Might be more… Do we engage or try and sneak past?"

Drawing his hand across his throat Shepard signalled his intent. The pair found a stairwell and descended a level, then retraced their steps to find the sniper's location. There was only one but the sounds of other Kig-Yar could be heard elsewhere on the floor. A flash of hand signals later Jones was positioning himself to cover Shepard's rear as Shepard himself set aside his assault rifle, drew his standard issue combat knife and advanced.

CRUNCH.

'_Shit.'_ Shepard thought as some loose rubble broke under his boot. The Kig-Yar turned, its beady eyes widened comically and it managed the beginnings of a startled shriek before Shepard fell on it and embedded the knife in its long neck.

A sharp beep, followed by Kig-Yar shrieks told Shepard he'd alerted the others.

"Catch kid." Jones called as he tossed the ICW to Shepard before taking cover against a doorframe.

Catching the assault rifle Shepard rushed to join Jones, barely making it into cover before a group of Kig-Yar came rushing towards them. Bursts of superheated green plasma impacted the frames as the Kig-Yars rushed forward, seems the one Shepard killed was popular.

"Fire in the hole!" Jones yelled before tossing a frag grenade through the doorway. The resulting boom and Kig-Yar shrieks told Shepard he had some cover and, popping out of cover for an instant, downed two of the still standing Kig-Yars before the others could recover and retaliate. As he popped back behind cover, several crystalline shards whizzed past and embedded into the wall behind him. "Shit, Needler!"

Arming one of the plasma grenades he'd taken from the Kig-Yar snipers earlier Shepard tossed the explosive down the corridor and readied two grenades. As soon as he heard the plasma grenade detonate the frags went after, the flash of plasma masking them.

BOOM.

Leaning out again Shepard found the Needler carrying hostile, dazed and startled by the blasts, and put a few rounds into its skull. As the surviving hostiles fired on Shepard's side of the door Jones downed one and winged two more. A grenade from Shepard finished the fight.

"So much for being sneaky." Jones muttered as he and Shepard moved up the blood splattered, and explosion damaged, corridor. Looking over the corpses, and remembering how effective enemy tech tended to be, Jones started gathering grenades.

"What's it with you and their rifles?" Jones laughed when Shepard picked up a Type-51 Carbine and snagged a few spare magazines for it from a shrapnel riddled corpse.

Shrugging as he holstered the ICW on his back Shepard double checked the Carbine's magazine. With their grenades replenished and some liberated weapons, Jones had decided to nab the Needler, the pair pushed on. Crossing the second makeshift bridge they heard the sounds of battle, the 'ping' of mass accelerator rounds and the roar of the Jiralhanae 'Spiker'.

"Shit! Move it, move!" Jones ordered as the pair rushed through the ruined tower, descending this one much faster than they'd ascended the first. Making it to the streets they emerged about four hundred metres behind what remained of a Jiralhanae armoured column that had been ambushed by another UNSC patrol. The smouldering wreckage of the enemy vehicles, mostly Ghosts with two twisted Wraith remains as well, littered the street and where being used as cover by the Jiralhanae and Unggoy as they gave as good as they got from the UNSC marines.

Taking cover behind some rubble that had spilled onto the street Shepard and Jones got ready to open fire and provide assistance. The sounds of Type-51 Carbines and Needlers weren't the kinds of sounds Jiralhanae typically associated with hostility so few at the rear reacted when Shepard and Jones opened fire. In fact they didn't react at all until the Needler shards began detonating and turned their own comrades into bombs.

The Jiralhanae found themselves in a tight spot, attempting to take cover from the UNSC marines would leave them open to Shepard and Jones while seeking cover from Shepard and Jones meant presenting themselves to the marines. The Jiralhanae captain, seeming to realise this and showing an unusual level of intelligence, levelled the massive Fuel Rod Cannon it carried at the building to its right and fired. The blast tearing a hole in the wall into which it seemed to order the others to retreat. The Unggoy didn't need to be told twice and ran as fast as their stumpy little legs could carry them. The Jiralhanae seemed hesitant to follow the order, their natural bloodlust made the idea of retreating something unaccustomed to them, but three of their numbers being dropped and another roar from the captain got them moving.

'_Not so fast.' _Shepard thought as he tracked the captain as it moved for the hole. As he fired the captain turned its head and let out a roar of rage that turned to a howl of agony as the Carbine's round ripped through the power armour's helmet and most likely part of the captain's face.

Rushing forward alongside Jones Shepard barely managed to resister the long Spike Grenades that came sailing out of the hole before Jones was tackling him to the ground. The grenades exploded, launching superheated barbed shrapnel out, and covered the Jiralhanae retreat.

XX Main Mess; The Fires Of Sol (Four Months Later) XX

Jones dropped down into the place opposite Shepard and began devouring his meal like a man starved. The pair had really bonded after they'd regrouped with allied troops and had thankfully been reassigned to the same squad afterwards. There new squad was primarily made up of Dark Worlders like Jones as opposed to their previous squad where Jones and the two actual UNSC marines where the only ones who weren't there as an alternative to prison.

This change made it a lot easier for Jones as he was among others who were fighting for citizenship but meant Shepard was avoided. The pair of jagged scars the Spiker had given him, plus his gang tattoos, most have made for an intimidating appearance. He didn't really care though, the CO talked to him when he was to follow orders and Jones talked enough for the whole squad so he was happy to be left on his own.

"That was something else, right?" Jones chuckled in reference to their last mission where they'd gotten to see the results of a group of ODSTs.

"Was pretty cool." Shepard agreed in between forkfuls of food. Turning to look at the others in their squad, who all look down at their food when his eyes fell on them, and looking back to Jones Shepard continued. "Although I'm surprised you like them, don't the ODSTs spent as much time fucking over you Innies as they do the Baby Kongs?"

"Hahahaha… Ha, fuck you Earthborn. Fuck you very much." Jones snapped, although the smile on his face said he didn't really mind. "So, you any idea what you gonna do once you're done in the Penal System?"

"I'm a year into a five year stretch, and they call what we're in Suicide Squads for a reason, so I ain't making any plans until my release papers are signed and in my hand." Shepard told him as he snatched the bread roll off of Jones' tray. "Thanks."

"No no, help yourself. Not like I might have wanted to eat it or anything." Jones said tiredly before Shepard tossed his own dessert over to him.

"What about you, how long left?" Shepard asked as he tore into the roll.

"I'm a teacher, or I was one back home, so I figured I'd get a job teaching." Jones told him, a happy smile on the man's face.

"You were a teacher?" Shepard asked, feigning total surprise to annoy him. "You never told me that… What'd you teach?"

"Ha. Ha. Ha." Jones said slowly. "You know, you should be a comedian when you finish here… Because you are just hilarious."

"Will I certainly know how to knock 'em dead, don't I?" Shepard joked as he finished him food. "Talk to you later Jones."

_**XXXXX**_

_**So that's chapter two. I'm planning to spend a few chapters building up to the Eden Prime mission, showing Shepard as he goes through his sentence and later after he joined the Marine Corps proper. This chapter should have been up a day or two ago but the computer I was using was acting up and that made making the Timeline I've posting in my Forum take longer than I thought [even though making the Timeline mostly just involved copy-pasting stuff from the Halo and Mass Effect wikis then editing the dates or adding in my own little things]. I'll be adding the final section of the Timeline [Shanxi War to Eden Prime] over the next few days and then I'll either throw up a brief political overview as, describing the relationship humanity has with certain races, or do a brief detail on human weapons and armour as of 2573.**_

_**Shepard will be closer to a Mass Effect Infiltrator [skilled marksman with computer skills]. I'm also going to be changing around the service history of several human characters, reflecting the fact that the UNSC is **__**not**__** the Systems Alliance. Expect Shepard to meet some characters earlier than in canon or to not meet them until much later. Also expect human characters to have somewhat different personalities due the changes in their race's history.  
**_

_**Well, I think that's everything I've gotta say so, hope you enjoyed the chapter.**_

_**This is Highvalour saying bye and thanks for reading**_


	3. Prologue Penal Squad - Pt3

_**Planning to start showing events outside of those just involving Shepard, either as potential starting points for subplots/spin-offs or just to write something different. This first one follows that Captain Shepard shot in the face last chapter.**_

_**Another chapter, another attempt to entertain you all. I honestly do not have anything else to add, so on with the show!**_

_**Halo belongs to Microsoft Studios**_

_**Mass Effect belongs to belongs to Bioware**_

_**XXXXX**_

XX Jiralhanae Cruiser the Ferocious Doctrine – 2573 XX

Kamak did his best not to show his fear, jiralhanae could smell fear and often said it made unggoy taste better. The Alpha Jiralhanae who had been placed in command of the attack on the planet was ranting and raging at his surviving forces. The big dumb brute didn't care that they'd been fighting sangheili and humans or that his stupid decisions on where the big guns went left them unable to fight properly, he was just afraid this loss would look bad on him. They'd barely managed to get back to the troop carriers before he'd ordered the cruiser into the Void.

Kamak did his best to focus on the Alpha Jiralhanae while also scanning the remaining Lances. Most where more heavily beaten then the one he belonged too, some consisting of only a single jiralhanae or unggoy. Actually, the Lance under the command of Wotanizus seemed to be one of the largest remaining. That was bad.

"And you!" The Alpha snarled as he rounded on Wotanizus, his long braided beard swinging from his chin as he did so. "You fled from battle! The others forced to retreat, their numbers whittled down but you… YOU RAN!"

"I would not see my pack destroyed due to a fool's planning!" Wotanizus snapped back only to receive a brutal blow to his damaged left eye, where the human reinforcements' carbine round had struck him.

"Watch your tone whelp! We are far from Doisac and your uncle's favouritism will not protect you." The Alpha growled as he stared down at the hissing Wotanizus in reference to his familial relation to the Chief of Chiefs and the younger jiralhanae's rapid advancement through the ranks. "Speak to me like that again and I will kill you myself."

But Wotanizus refused to be cowed by the Alpha and stared right back, teeth bared in challenge. Even when the Alpha readied his massive hammer Wotanizus did not falter and something, either respect for the younger jiralhanae's courage or fear of his uncle, stayed the Alpha's hand.

"Your actions have brought the stench of shame aboard this ship… And only blood will wash it clean." The Alpha growled before pointing past Wotanizus with his hammer. "Kill them."

"What!?" One of Kamak's fellow unggoy squeaked.

"Wotanizus has brought shame on all of you by making you flee from battle, now he will release you from this shame." The Alpha explained with a cruel chuckle, Wotanizus had ordered the retreat to avoid his pack's destruction and now would be forced to kill them… Or be killed himself.

"You… No… I will not!" Wotanizus roared but was prevented from lunging at the Alpha when the older jiralhanae's hammer hummed warningly.

"Do it, or it will be your blood that washes away the stink on my ship." The Alpha threatened.

"The stench of shame… It does hang heavy over this ship. And only blood will wash it away." Wotanizus growled as he turned to face his pack. The jiralhanae's single remaining eye swept over the assembled jiralhanae and unggoy, his thoughts and intentions unreadable. "But I feel only the one who brought it upon us can wash it away!"

With that declaration of intent Wotanizus drew his pistol and turned, the long curved blade attached to his weapon's guard coming down on the Alpha's hand. With a howl of pain the Alpha reflexively released his grip on the hammer before recovering and swatting the pistol from Wotanizus' grip then tackled his opponent. The jiralhanae snarled and roared in amusement as the young Captain challenged the ship's Alpha. They chanted and yelled as the one eyed challenger did his best against the older and more powerful Alpha.

Kamak and his unggoy brethren retreated out of the way, when jiralhanae got excited unggoy often got crushed. As he tried to put as much distance between himself and the fighting Kamak heard Wotanizus howl in agony, Wotanizus had held the upper hand but lost it after the Alpha dug his thumb into the wounded jiralhanae's damaged eye. As Wotanizus reared back in agony the Alpha forced him to the ground.

Dropping down and kneeling on Wotanizus chest the Alpha pinned the young Captain to the ground and began peeling away the helmet, he clearly wanted to see his victim's face as the life was crushed out of the body.

"The Captain's gonna die!" an unggoy to Kamak's right shrieked.

"Someone help!" Another cried

"Run! Run! Run! We'll be next!" a third whimpered.

Agreeing with the third one Kamak began frantically looking for the exit. And then he saw it, the Captain's pistol. To the jiralhanae the Type-52 Pistol was just that, a pistol, but to the small frame of an unggoy it was more like a human shotgun. A powerful shotgun with enough kick to knock Kamak off his feet when he fired it at the Alpha.

"Gah!" The Alpha snarled as his shields, already weakened from Wotanizus' attacks, failed and his armoured absorbed the rest of the impact from Kamak's panicked attack. He wasn't injured, just startled as no jiralhanae would ever expect to be attacked by another during a challenge for leadership.

The time it took for him to gather himself, plus the second it took to find the terrified Kamak, proved fatal however as the enraged captain beneath him lunged forward and sank fangs into his throat. Swinging his fist down he knocked the younger jiralhanae loose but the berserking Wotanizus simply tossed him away before the Alpha could do anything.

"AAARGGH!" Wotanizus screamed as he fell on the Alpha, fists pounding away at the older jiralhanae's head and face with enough force to dent and warp the armoured headdress worn as a mark of station. When Wotanizus calmed down enough to think clearly the Alpha was a twitching lump of muscle and fur with pulp for a head. When his still furious eye fell on Kamak, the little unggoy nearly fainted with fear. "You! Unggoy! Your dare attack during a challenge!?"

"I… I… He would have killed you…" Kamak managed to whimper before his voice died, taking the 'and then us as well' that should have ended that sentence with it. Something that may have been for the best.

"Your name?" Wotanizus snarled as he began to advance his trembling little saviour.

"I-I-I'm Kamak, I have served you since we left Doisac…" Kamak whispered as Wotanizus towered over him. Noticing he still held the pistol in his hands Kamak quickly held it out and began repeatedly apologising.

"…Keep it, as a sign of your new station." Wotanizus grunted before turning away and retrieving the still twitching Alpha's hammer. Pausing to study the weapon/ status symbol for a moment he then snarled with rage as he brought the hammer down, pommel first, and 'planted' it in the Alpha's chest like a banner.

"N-New station?" Kamak asked after a moment, his brain having been too preoccupied with him not being killed to fully register the words.

"Should the next few minutes go in my favour, you shall serve as my personal attendant." Wotanizus growled as he turned slowly to study the assembled jiralhanae, many of whom looked unhappy. "For now you and your fellow unggoy may leave. Treat your injuries and then feast, you all have earned it!"

Kamak was nearly swept away in the rush as the other unggoy departed. Managing to get his footing by the doors Kamak stopped and watched as Wotanizus flashed a cruel and bloodthirsty smile.

"If any object to a half blind 'whelp' taking command, voice your objections now." He snarled while reaching out to gently lay a hand on the hammer. "If not, take a knee and submit!"

XX Armoury; The Fires Of Sol – 2574 XX

Shepard accepted the hardsuit handed to him with a scowl. OPI Technologies may have pulled that plastic piece of crap but they'd replaced it with something barely any better in Shepard's eyes. Sure it had a bit more padding, and the shields where meant to be stronger, but it was still a glorified jumpsuit they expected him to wear while fighting 500KG space-gorilla that could probably bench Shepard's old car.

Moving into the small walled area where he and his squad could change Shepard began stripping off his fatigues and suited up. To look at the 'Victor' didn't look at the different to the 'Reclaimer' hardsuit, chest was a little bulkier and the pauldrons larger but it was really just the same old piece of crap. It even had the same crappy 'urban camo' pattern that was absolutely useless for the Penal Squads since the UNCS painted big red markings on the armour so they'd be easily differentiated from standard marines.

"Never gets old, seeing you scared of a damn helmet." Jones chuckled to his right as the older man finished his systems check.

"Ain't scared, just wondering why we have to wear this piece of crap instead of those big sturdy BDUs the marines use to have." Shepard corrected as he popped his helmet on and began running his own systems check.

"I'll tell you why…" A particularly unpleasant member of the squad by the name of McKay spat before leaning in towards Shepard for a conspiratorial whisper. "It's because those filthy xenophiles get a twisted hard-on every time they see us dress up like turians!"

"Huh, the idea that anyone could get a hard-on looking at someone as repulsive as you just boggles the mind." Shepard snorted, electing a dirty stare from the serial killer he was forced to work alongside.

"Knock it off ladies, Albatrosses drop in five so cut the chatter and get your guns." Their sergeant ordered, potentially preventing Shepard from getting to kick McKay's teeth in.

Letting McKay push past him Shepard waited a minute before joining Jones in the queue to be handed their weapons. While Shepard understood why they did this, no one in their right mind would let convicts have the same kind of access to weapons or armour as the standard marines, he still found it degrading having to line up in full view of the real marines and be handed a rifle. When he made it to the counter, and scanned his IFF, the quartermaster paused.

"Huh, that's new." The old marine grumbled before leaning to her right and set down a DMR in front of him. "Didn't think any of you idiots could be trusted to work anything above the ICW."

"Eh… I took some qualifying exam down at the practice range but…" Shepard began before the quartermaster cut him off.

"Don't care about your life's story, now get out of the way his I can arm the rest of you idiots!" She snapped at him.

Moving away Shepard took one of the modified PDPs, locked like the rifles so that they cannot be used until a sergeant issues a code groundside, and joined his squad. Strapping himself into the Albatross and stowing his rifle Shepard activated his VISR's uplink to the UNSC Database. Sure the Penal Squads had little to no real clearance but Shepard had worked out a way to patch his Omni-Tool into his VISR and that let him run some bypasses. A display taking up nearly half of Shepard's field of view popped up and began giving him Intel on the MA-403 DMR.

Someone nudged Shepard causing him to close his link. Looking to his side he spotted Jones, noticeable by his IFF, looking at him and nodding towards the sergeant who was glaring at Shepard.

"Lose the porn feed, I'm explaining what the objective is." The Sergeant was an asshole, way worse than the one Shepard and Jones had served under before, and seemed to hold each and every member of the squad in contempt.

"Hahaha… Didn't know those rumours about marines wanking over their guns was true." Shepard laughed, adding to why their sergeant especially disliked him. "I was checking the new gun, forewarned and all that."

"Sure you were." The sergeant said sarcastically. "Now, as I was saying, our target is a beryllium processing plant the Brutes set up. Recon says limited security so we're looking at grunt workers, Jacket watchers and whatever Brutes got sent to oversee the lot. We're part of the force ordered to capture this plant."  
"Isn't this some ODST bullshit, why are we going?" Someone interrupted.

"Because our orders are to capture, not destroy, the facility. Beryllium serves some role in constructing their ships, so handing it over to the sangheili will boost their war effort." The sergeant informed them.

"WHAT!?" McKay roared. "Bad enough we're running around in turian pyjamas but now we're running jobs for those split-jawed bastards! Fuck that!"

"You'll do what you're told, convict, or so help me I will shoot you myself." Shepard really hoped the sergeant did that, McKay was an ass and he really hoped the man got fragged.

Whatever classy response McKay had planned to retort with was forgotten when another Penal Squad boarded the carrier and their sergeant informed them of the mission, with no complaints or backtalk. As the Albatross began its decent Shepard used his Omni-Tool to hack into the dropship's external cameras. Completely replacing his HUD with the sight of heat and friction and the planet below. Shepard loved this, just watching the planet growing larger and closer during re-entry.

XX Beryllium Processing Plant; Lorn V XX

The squad moved forward, through the thick foliage that surrounded the plant. Shepard was apart from the main group, the sergeant having ordered him to act as a scout, and so he was the first to get a clear look at the plant. No real walls to speak of at the boundaries, but the buildings themselves looked thick and solid. If they jiralhanae locked it down before anyone secured a hold this would be a lot harder. Scanning the lush greenery Shepard spotted the IFFs from nearly a dozen different squads as positioning themselves for the attack. The VISR programming also let him pick up the readings of any enemy combat harness in range, which was worrying.

"Sergeant, this looks wrong." Shepard reported in as the rest of the squad moved up. "No way the Albatrosses went unnoticed but there's no sign they even registered us."

"Brutes are thick as posts, what do you expect?" Someone from the back of the squad snorted.

"No he's right… Grunts just moving about, acting normal." The sergeant said just as the order to move came through.

BOOM!

The distinct sound of a round from a jiralhanae grenade launcher, or Brute-Shot, exploding rank out as the other squads moved forward. Particle Rifle rounds, coming from Kig-Yar snipers atop the plant's roof, began taking pot-shots at the marines and Penal Squads members moving forward.

"Fuck that." Shepard spat before diving back into the cover of the local foliage. Readying his DMR and tracking the trails from the Kig-Yar shots Shepard lined up a shot and dropped one. A retaliatory shot from another sniper sent Shepard running, skirting the edges of cover looking for another firing position. Taking another shot, Shepard wounded a sniper and was moving again before its friends got target him.

"Kid! Kid where are you?" Jones' voice buzzed over comms.

"Hidden in the trees, taking shots at the snipers." Shepard replied as he crouched down and readied another shot. "Where are you?"

"He's firing on the snipers from the treeline." Jones said to someone, most likely the sergeant. After a bit of back and forth Jones addressed Shepard again. "That was close, Sarge was about to kill your guns for deserting."

"Where the hell does he expect me to desert too?" Shepard asked out of genuine curiosity. "Command gave me the long range and accurate gun that won't do me any good in close, right? So it makes sense I stay back and use it… Another Jackal down!"

"Good point, I'll tell him that." Jones laughed before screams of 'Incoming!' rang out and the sounds of explosions came from the plant's main courtyard.

"Shit! Shit, shit, crap, dammit." Shepard cursed as he downed another sniper. He'd stopped moving in between shots as the soldiers in the courtyard kept the Kig-Yar from focusing on him. Although now he had to as he had no clear shots left.

Moving forward in search of a target Shepard reflected on how bad an op this was. No support, no real plan and no groundside recon… Whoever planned this clusterfuck had better lose their job over it. When he reached the courtyard he found a jiralhanae Captain and over twenty unggoy dead along with the bodies of many humans. The remaining soldiers were either busy attempting to breech and secure the plant itself or providing suppressing fire to keep the remaining snipers pinned down and unable to fire on them.

"Blast it open!" Shepard's sergeant ordered before noticing Shepard's approach. "You! I never ordered you to stay back! You just bought yourself another year in the system, at least!"

"Yeah and how many of those snipers have you taken out?" Shepard spat as he squared up to the NCO. "This whole operation is bullshit and I for one refuse to die because of bullshit. So you got a problem with me thinking things out, fuck you!"

"Enough!" Another sergeant ordered. This sergeant, older and holding seniority over Shepard's one, ordered the marines to use enemy plasma grenades to breech the doors and told Shepard, along with a group of standard marines, to move through the facility and take the roof. "Deal with those damn Jackals, understood?"

"Yes Sir." Shepard said with a salute, just to annoy his sergeant, as the doors to the facility where blasted open and UNSC personnel flooded in to kill or capture anyone inside.

_**XXXX**_

_**Something of a running joke it seems will be my use of taking Warhammer 40k planet names and using them for jiralhanae/sangheili controlled planets. Did it in the CODEX timeline without realising it and just caught myself doing it here. I'm gonna keep doing it since I like 40K, not as much as Warhammer Fantasy, and it's a good source of names.**_

_**Next chapter should see Shepard released from his service in the suicide squads and we'll be moving into him as a member of the UNSC proper. The CODEX has a mostly complete timeline up until the Eden Prime mission as well as entries on guns and BDU/hardsuits.**_

_**Another chapter, another attempt to entertain you all. I honestly do not have anything else to add, so on with the show!**_

_**Halo belongs to Microsoft Studios**_

_**Mass Effect belongs to belongs to Bioware**_

_**XXXXX**_


	4. Prologue Helljumper - Pt1

_**Another chapter, another attempt to entertain you all. I honestly do not have anything else to add, so on with the show!**_

_**Halo belongs to Microsoft Studios**_

_**Mass Effect belongs to belongs to Bioware**_

_**XXXXX**_

XX Skitarii; Tyran - 2576 CE XX

Screams and gunfire mingled with the sounds of agonised roars as civilians fled from the mutated attackers. The Flood, or some kind of other creature horrific creature that infects and mutates others to propagate, tore through Tyran's capital city. The things acted like the Flood, seeking to attack and infect as many people as possible while showing little to no sense of self preservation. All that mattered was spreading the infecting. Skitarii's civilian police force had broken down, officers fleeing with the masses, and it was up to sporadic groups of the city's UNSC Army garrison to try and hold the line.

The creatures lacked the sensory tentacles of standard Flood combat forms, instead seeming to rely on the host body's eyes and ears to find targets. Instead of the brown-green biomass the Flood produced the creatures seemed to be mutating the host bodies to create thicker, denser muscle mass. The creatures also seemed to sport massive, pincer like claws as opposed to the Flood's tentacles.

"How the fuck are these things spreading so fast?" Corporal Matsuki wondered dumbfound as the squad caught their breath atop a bank.

"Infection is spread on contact. No need for Infection Forms." Lance Corporal Agu noted as he checked on the squad's resident rookie.

"Command, Command come in! This is Lieutenant Shepard repeated over and over, trying to get evac for him and his squad. "I repeat, this is Lieutenant Shepard. My squad is un-infected and has Intel relating to the outbreak. We require immediate evac… Come in Command-"

"Give it up Shep, we've been burned." Matsuki sighed bitterly. "They're gonna deny we were in the city and say we died tragically while out on that 'training exercise'… We're screwed."

"If it's any consolation the Rookie is fine." Agu chimed in, trying to find the silver lining amongst a solar system of jet black clouds. "Claws tore through the ceramic and punctured the titanium in places but didn't make it to the Kevlar… As long as he avoids any gut shots kid'll be alright."

"Tunnels are gone." Shepard announced as soon as the report showed up on his VISR. "Pelicans took out the island side entrances and Army has blockades at the other end… Orders are to shot on sight if anyone tried to escape."

"So what? We just sit tight, avoiding the monsters until Blackwatch arrives and clears this up?" Private Smith asked, the naivety and wide eyed innocence actually making Shepard uncomfortable.

"Kid Blackwatch is gonna Glass this city, hell maybe the entire region, to make sure whatever ever the fuck that was doesn't get loose!" Agu snapped gruffly, man was one hell of a medic but his bedside manner left a lot to be desired. "Matsuki called it, we've been burned."

"We're getting out of here." Shepard snarled as a civilian transport attempted to escape the blockade, only to be blown out of the skies by patrolling Pelicans. No way the UNSC was gonna risk this outbreak spreading. As the flaming wreckage plummeted downward into the dark waters of the river Varnak an idea began to form in Shepard's mind. It was the kind of idea that normally one would dismiss out of hand and deny ever even having it, but right now Shepard was desperate enough to try anything. "Hey Rookie… Your seals still good?"

XX Acheron Fossae; Mars – 18 Months Previous XX

Hidden mines detonated, simulating artillery fire, as the members of Hastati Squad moved across the battlefield. One of nearly a dozen squads comprised of candidates for the 105th Marine Expeditionary Unit, the most prestigious Orbital Drop Shock Trooper combat unit there was. Every year nearly three hundred potentials, drawn from all four branches of the UNSC, were offered the chance to compete. The chance to train and test oneself to the extreme and hopefully become ODSTs, the best humanity fielded… The single largest group to be passed in the last century was twenty five.

Hastati was comprised of four Marine candidates; a Sergeant with close to twenty years combat experience, a Corporal who'd done nine years against the worst the Jiralhanae have to offer and a pair of newly minted lieutenants who had both bartered their time in the Penal Squads to get officer training.

"Down!" Shepard growled as he tackled Sergeant Masaki out of the way as Hoplite Squad, made up of members of the UNSC Army, emerged from cover and opened fire. Modified ICWs, adjusted to fire significantly weaker rounds that delivered a weak electrical charge, whizzed past as Shepard and Masaki hit the ground and rolled apart.

Corporal Malone and Lieutenant Leng provided suppressing fire with their own ICWs while Sergeant Masaki brought her MA-TS8g combat shotgun up and caught one unfortunate soldier square in the chest. The man gave a pained groan as lights built into his armour flashed, signalling his 'death' and that he should be ignored. Shepard tossed a training grenade then dove behind cover. Once clear of the enemies' line of sight he set off, using the simulated city ruins to cover his movement as he pushed forward to flank the enemy.

Emerging from the ruins of what was meant to have been a shopping centre Shepard fired off a round from his DMR, the stun round pinging off the helmet of a Hydra hardsuit wearing soldier. Ducking back into the centre Shepard listened to the sounds of rounds pummelling into the doorframe he'd hidden behind while the occasional tracer flickered past. The boom of a shotgun firing, followed by the sounds of ICWs off to the side, told him the other members of Hastati Squad had used his distraction to push forward and finish off Hoplite.

"All good Sarge?" Shepard asked casually as he stopped a grumbling soldier and plucked a grenade from the man's belt, secure and replenish whenever possible on the battlefield after all.

"I'm fine Lieutenant. Thanks for the save." Masaki replied as she paused to brush some dust and dirt off her hardsuit. The four members of Hastati Squad moved into the centre and paused. Shepard had his HOLOPAD up and projecting a 3D map of the area for them to study.

"Fastest route to the central plaza is through that tower across from us, then north." Leng pointed out.

Second Lieutenant Kai Leng was two years Shepard's junior but, thanks to some falsified papers, had just as along a service record as the former gang member. Earthborn, Leng's parents had been political dissidents before they split completely with hundreds of others to settle the 'Independent Human Colony Mindoir'. On Mindoir, the separatists found everything they wanted. Freedom from the oppressive control of the United Earth Government. Freedom from the UEG's fascist attack dog the UNSC… Freedom from the powerful ground forces the UNSC placed on every colony to protect it from alien aggressors. This last fact proved to be Mindoir's undoing when batarian slavers attacked in 2570. The farms and communes had little to no defence against the well-armed and determined slavers. By the time the batarians where finished less than one hundred of the colony's six thousand settlers remained. Close to four thousand had been killed in the attack, the remainder unfortunately found themselves subjected to horrific implanting in preparation for their new lives as slaves.

The fourteen year old Kai, who had survived because he'd been traveling between communes with a family friend to trade, was left orphaned and alone. Two year later the boy had use falsified records to apply for, and be accepted for, the chance to serve in a Penal Squad to earn his UEG citizenship. By the time his deception was found out Leng already had his citizenship and, like Shepard, was planning to use a recent officer recruitment drive to upskill himself and continue his military career. With was his exemplarily record, and one understanding recruitment officer, that kept Leng from having his application rejected and maybe his citizenship revoked.

"That leaves us too exposed, better to swing north-west and approach the plaza from the opposite side." Masaki countered. Sergeant Rachel Masaki was a native of Cadia, one of the closest human worlds to Jiralhanae Space. Facing more kig-yar raids and jiralhanae assaults than any other human world the Cadians where unsurprisingly some of the most militarised and combat ready humans in existence. It was rare to see a Candian serve in the Marines, and almost unheard off for one to serve in the Navy, as most preferred to carry out the planetary defence roles the UNSC Army and Air Force specialised in.

"We don't have the time." Corporal Malone grumbled. Shepard didn't know much about the man other than what his features and name implied, African and Irish heritage, since he hadn't been willing to share when the squad had been introduced earlier that day. "Leng is right."

"Lieutenant Leng." Leng corrected.

"Knock it off, both of you." Shepard ordered, cutting off any possible infighting. Malone resented the fact that it took nine years for him to be noticed by the 105th while Shepard and Leng only had to do three and a half years in Penal, then rush through officer training, to get offered a chance. Shepard had considered telling the cranky old asshole that maybe he should have made more of an effort to impress whoever it was that sent out the invites, but didn't since it'd just provoke the rather large man into attacking him. "The Sergeant is right, that route leaves us too exposed-"

"We don't have time." Leng cut in.

"I know, but being late is better than dead!" Shepard growled, shutting the other Lieutenant up. Taking a moment to study the map Shepard tried to think of another possible route, one that provided plenty of cover but would get them there in good time. As he traced his finger from the plaza along the possible routes to take Shepard's eyes drifted to Masaki, and he recalled something she'd said during their introductions. "Hey Sarge, you have demo training right?"

"Yeah… Why?" Masaki asked slowly, confusion and a tiny hint of unease in her voice.

"Because this building-" Shepard began as he pointed to a point on the map. "- backs right onto the plaza, pretty close to the bunker entrance, and is on the route you pointed out. We have training grenades, which have a small explosive charge, and some of these wrecked vehicles still have fuel cells… Think you can jury-rig up an IED, blast through the walls?"

"I… Eh… Maybe." Masaki began before falling silent. When she spoke again she nearly torpedoed Shepard's plan. "VISR data says the building is meant to be a bank, vault walls will be too thick for an IED to breech."

"Then we avoid the vault, blast out an office on one of the upper floors and drop." Leng commented, showing his support for the plan.

"It'll still take too long, best bet is through the tower and straight north." Malone objected.

"Might work. Head for the bank, procure a fuel cell on route… Blast should catch anyone fighting in the plaza off-guard, we might be able to rush the bunker before they can recover." Masaki murmured. "alright Lieutenant, we'll do it your way."

The team made good time, travelling at a steady pace, through the simulated ruins. As they turned onto the street the fake bank was located on Corporal Malone pointed out that the IED wasn't needed, since the upper levels had windows they could drop down from instead. Moving into the bank, covering any and all possible ambush points along the way, Hastati Squad ascended to the first floor. Masaki was on point, her combat shotgun well suited to the tight stairwell and maze of cubicles they travelled through, with Leng and Malone close behind to watch the flanks. Shepard took up the rear, MA-PDP drawn since the DMR was less than ideal for close combat. The sounds of gunfire rang out from the rear of the building, at least two other potential squads had made it to the plaza it seems.

Moving to cover under one of the large windows, somewhere one normally would avoid due to an ICWs penetrative power but the weapons in use would be too weak to punch through, Shepard holstered the pistol and readied his DMR. Leng and Malone took a window to his left while Masaki took cover to his right.

"Ideas?" Shepard asked.

"I count three separate squads, two Marine and one Army." Malone reported as he peeked up and surveyed the plaza. "Looks like the Marines have ganged up on the Army boys… No one seems too close to the bunker entrance."

"Army are pinned down directly across from us, using those raised garden features as cover." Leng added. "Marine squads at Eleven and Two o'clock respective… Army isn't gonna hold out much longer."

"Don't have a clear shot on anyone at Two o'clock, but I think I can get at least two of the Marines at Eleven." Shepard muttered as he smashed out the remaining glass panels, the sounds of ICW fire and distant explosions drowning out the noise. "If you could position yourselves to hit the squad at Two o'clock we could drop a lot quickly."

"You want to hit the Marines first?" Malone snapped, inter-service rivalry had him wanting to team up and finish off the Army first.

"Why not just ignore them, move for the bunker while they're distracted with one another?" Leng asked.

"too risky, second they see someone moving for the bunker they'll all turn around and open fire." Masaki said. "Area around the bunker entrance is too exposed, we wouldn't stand a chance."

"We have to clear them out, and hitting the Marines is better since the Army has already taken a pounding. Marines are in better shape so taking them out is the best course of action." Shepard explained. "Drop down and get into position, I'll wait for you signal before I take a shot."

Masaki, Malone and Leng dropped through the busted window Shepard was hidden behind and moved out along the edge of the plaza. Using the features and large decorative flower beds as cover the majority of Hastati Squad positioned themselves to strike. While they'd been moving the Army squad, who had been whittled down to just one soldier, managed to eliminate two Marines.

"Malone in position."

"Leng ready."

"Fire when ready Lieutenant."

Boom!

The Marine's shields dropped, and the 'dead' lights flickered on, almost immediately. The sounds of two more ICWs joining the fray, and the deep boom of a shotgun, rank out as Shepard lined up another shot. Another shot, shields dropped but no lights. Checking the VISR display Shepard tracked his squad's movements. Three green blips moving around, slowly inching their way towards a lone red blip while two red blips calmly moved off.

'_First Marine squad down, looks like they're heading for the Army lad.' _Shepard thought before popping up and searching for another target. Realising he couldn't get a clean shot Shepard prepared to move. A glance at his HUD had Shepard opening a channel to the Squad. "Incoming, plaza's southern entrance. Watch your rear."

"understood, do you have visual?" Leng radioed back.

"Negative, VISR readings only. Dropping down and repositioning for better vantage." Shepard told them before vaulting through the window and rushing to northward. Skidding to halt behind cover Shepard took aim and dropped another of the other Marines just as the newcomers, armour marking them as Naval, entered the plaza and opened fire.

"Hostile down!" Leng called out over the comms channel as his ICW fire downed the shields and triggered the lights on one. Space seemed to distort over by where the Naval personnel where taking cover just before one, surrounded by a shimmering blue nimbus, rose and made a backhand motion. The decorative plant pot Leng was hidden behind shattered and the Lieutenant was sent flying back.

"Biotic!" Malone roared as he popped out of cover to grab the dazed Leng and drag him to safety.

"Grenade out." Masaki yelled as she tossed the training grenade and managed to eliminate the last two Marines. "Shifting focus. Shepard take out that biotic!"

"Roger Sergeant, provide suppressive fire while I relocate for better shot." Shepard replied before making a break, heading back down the edges of the plaza in search of a chance to flank and ambush the Naval squad.

"Frag out!" That was Malone, the following booms indicating he'd tossed two grenades. An outburst of rather colourful Australian swearwords signalled one of the Naval boys being eliminated.

"Shields down, shit shields down!" That was Leng, who'd popped out of cover to let of a volley of ICW fire only to take several rounds himself. "Still in the game… That was close."

"Stay in cover, fully recharge before attempting to engage again." Shepard ordered as Shepard stayed low and moved from cover, another four metres and he'd be behind the enemy squad. The roar of an ICW and the ping of rounds hitting the ground behind him told Shepard he'd been spotted. "Shit! Masaki. Malone. Draw their fire, get them looking away from me!"

No one replied, but the sounds of ICWs and a combat shotgun rang out and Shepard found the suppressive fire directed at him ended. Peeking out Shepard spotted his chance. The biotic was generating dark energy for another gravity distorting display, and that made identifying her easy. Lining up his shot, Shepard waited until the biotic was up and fired.

"Shit." Shepard gulped when his shot was stopped by a biotic barrier the Naval officer had enveloped herself in. Quickly getting another shot off Shepard managed to break through the biotic barrier but before he could try and down her suits shielding a wave of gravity twisting dark energy hit him square in the chest. The impact didn't send Shepard flying, as he'd expected, but instead seemed to act as a tether with which the biotic was easily able to pull the 90kg plus armour Shepard forward a solid five metres. Hitting the ground hard enough to drive the air from his lungs, Shepard wasn't able to move fast enough to avoid the biotic levelling her ICW at him. "Ah crap…"

Boom!

The Naval officer was knocked ass over head by Sergeant Masaki's shotgun as Sergeant scored a direct hit on the woman's exposed back. Malone and Leng ended the other Naval combatants with ICW fire.

"Up you get Shepard." Leng chuckled as he reached down to pull Shepard to his feet.

"Thanks." Shepard groaned as he got up and retrieved his DMR. "Let's get into that bunker and finish this before anyone else arrives."

_**XXXXX**_

_**I'm dyslexic, so please point out any mistakes in spelling or grammar [I spell things the way they do in England and Ireland, so some things may look off to Americans]. Please leave your opinion via review or send them via PM, I'd like to know what you think. **_

_**Well, I think that's everything I've gotta say so, hope you enjoyed the chapter.**_

_**This is Highvalour saying bye and thanks for reading**_


	5. NOT A CHAPTER: BIG INFORMATION DUMP!

**_Right, I should have done something like this at first but I didn't want to. The CODEX forum thread was meant to be where I'd answer any questions, with the answers left there for others to come along and read as well but I've been getting plenty of people asking questions [and more than a few bitching] about changes I made for my story._**

**_I am going to go through the basis of the story and cover the following issues; Humanity's decision to replace their old gas operated guns with the Mass Accelerator. Why humanity doesn't have plasma weapons as standard and why kinetic barriers are used in place of Energy Shielding, Human-Sangheili relations, Human-Citadel Relations [broken down by Council race] and humanity's barely contained hate for 'Independent Colonies' which exist scattered through the Attican Traverse and along the Terminus Systems._**

**__****{Bold} is Author's Notes  
**

UNSC Battle Dress Unifrom Vs. Hardsuits

The Marine Corps Battle Dress Uniform, commonly shortened to just the BDU, was the main combat gear issued to members of the Marine Corps since the formation of the United Nations Space Command until it was officially replaced by the OPI Technologies produced 'Reclaimer' hardsuit. The BDU was made up of ballistic armour which provided protection to the torso, shoulders, forearms, the thighs and the lower legs [on Marine variants only]. The BDU was never equipped with energy shielding. While the Spartan-II's got shielding, and the ODSTs where fitted with weaker versions near the end of the war, it was considered too expensive to outfit every single soldier with Energy shields {**to quote Batman Begins "Bean counters didn't think a soldier's life was worth 300 grand."**}. The BDU variants used during the Shanxi War did have kinetic barriers, but these where basic and mostly ineffective.

Humanity improved their shields by reverse engineering technology to upgrade their own from salvaged turian tech during the war and then from black-market purchases out of the Terminus Systems. A company, called OPI Technologies, decided to create its own version of a hardsuit suited to humans since they combined the qualities of armour and Haz-Mat/EVA suits. The company bribed several high ranking UNSC personnel to get the contract but their product proved insufficient. Their follow up, 'The Victor', fared little better and the company lost the contract. Later going bankrupt over it. Aldrin Labs took over making armour for Marines and Army personnel. Thee hardsuits they produce, the Onyx and Hydra, draw on the BDU for inspiration with layers of ceramics, metal plating and recoil/heat absorbing gel layers. By 2583, the outbreak of the Eden Prime War, human shields are at about 83% the power of turian shields but the armour of the hardsuit itself is close to two and a half times that of the turian suits. This makes humans the second toughest soldiers, after krogan, to down in firefights.

The only troops still in BDUs are the Orbital Drop Shock Troops. Their suits are near identical to the design used during the Human/Covenant War with the only changes being an updating to VISR and newer Energy Shields being included.

**{More info on hardsuits and ODST BDUs can be found in the CODEX thread}**

Magazine Fed, Gas Operated Guns VS. Mass Accelerator Weapons

Some people argued that adapting these guns was 'dumb' **{One person bitched pretty hard} **but the reasons the UNSC switched over are as follows. Mass Accelerators use internal blocks of metal for ammo, each block is uniform across all weapons, and can provide between 5,000 and 10,000 rounds depending on the specifics of the weapon firing them. This offers several advantages in the eyes of UNSC top brass. Firstly, it reduces the carry weight a soldier has as s/he has no need to carry addition magazines. Secondly not needing to reload reduces the risk of jamming, especially for newer soldiers under fire, and the risk of overheating forces all troops to practice good trigger discipline. Thirdly, while a Mass Accelerator weapon is more to build the cost saved by not having to produce billions of rounds regularly more than covers it.

UNSC weapons still fit the same mould as their earlier versions, literally as Misriah Armory just adapted the production lines to install the ammo blocks and mass accelerators. At the time of the Shanxi War the weapons where less effective, early models that had only just replaced the older versions as standard. By 2583 the weapons perform on-par if not better than the older versions with rate of fire and DPS matching or surpassing older weapons. Human weapons in comparison to Citadel weapons stand out for their durability. While salarian weapons tend to deal more damage of fire more rounds before overheating they tend to be susceptible to malfunctioning and Asari weapons tend to be more comfortable to carry and have less recoil but tend to fall down in either damage or 'magazine' size. Humanity is known for being able to beat a krogan to death with a rifle butt and then fire like it was nothing **{this is canon in Halo to a degree for the assault rifle, which is built to take ungodly damage and still work fine}**. This ruggedness and general simplicity allows humanity to equip their troops with mass produced weapons and deploy anywhere, in any conditions, with consistent weapon performance.

Misriah Armory is not the only human weapons manufacturer, but they are the ones with the contract to supply the UNSC. Other manufacturers such as Hahne-Kedar, Kassa Fabrication and Rosenkov Materials are permitted to manufacture and sell a wide range of semi and fully automatic weapons to the public, providing strict record keeping and set limits are maintained. While these privately owned weapons are not as robust or powerful as Misriah Armory's weapons they still hold to the simple and durable design standards.

**{A brief overview of all standard UNSC weaponry is listed in the CODEX thread}**

Ballistic Weapons VS. Directed Energy Weapons

The biggest limitation to humanity developing plasma weaponry is resources. Human controlled space simply lacks large enough quantities of specific minerals and metals used by the Former Covenant races to build their weapons. These resources unfortunately play a vital role in allowing troop portable weapons to generate and direct the superheated plasma. This lack or resources, added to Sangheili unwillingness to provide the resources since that would weaken their own military, greatly hampered humanity's research **{Loss of ONI, and the data it possessed, didn't help either}.** However the sangheili have little to know use for Eezo and their worlds have several untapped, naturally occurring, veins of Eezo which they are willing to provide humanity with in exchange for a commitment of troops to battling the Jiralhanae Empire and assisting the sangheili in achieving complete agricultural and industrial self-sufficiency **{More will be touched on in the section on Human/Sangheili relations}. **Humanity does have one useable, infantry operated, plasma weapon. The P94 Energy Caster, which works more like a flamethrower than a rifle, is tricky to use effectively and poses a risk to the user. It is employed as an Anti-Flood weapon and assigned to members of a special group nicknamed The Blackwatch whose job is to search human space and protect it from the Flood.

The M6 Grindell/Galilean Nonlinear Rifle, Spartan Laser, is no longer made as an infantry weapon **{Same reason as marines didn't get Energy Shields} **but is instead manufactured as M8C Grindell/Galilean Nonlinear Cannon. The M8C is mounted onto vehicles and used as a high power anti-armour weapon. Ship mounted versions, called a M10G Nonlinear Battery, serve as humanity's version of GUARDIAN Lasers. For ship mounted plasma weaponry there is the XJZ11 Nonlinear Pulse Cannon. The XJZ11, commonly referred to as the Surtr Cannon, is based on long term study of former Covenant vessels and the Energy Projector that served as the main weapon of these ships. The weapon generates and expels a massive burst of superheated plasma which, even if it fails to make contact with the enemy hull, can potentially cripple an enemy vessel. The amount of heat radiated by the plasma when it impacts an enemy vessel's shields is enough to warp the metal hull and possibly result in compromised bulkheads.

UNSC Vessels

When the turian patrol discovered Shanxi and reported in, they noted a collection of ships ranging in length from 150m to about 600m. The turians assumed, based on their own ship sizes, these to be the bulk of humanity's frigates and cruisers. As such, when this rather small fleet was destroyed the turians presumed the human navy was gone. As such when the Fifth Fleet emerged from Slipspace it caught the token force left to oversee the pacification of Shanxi completely off guard. 150m turian frigates found themselves being battered by their cruiser sized human counterparts, TriFire cannons pounding their shields apart. Turian cruisers found themselves going toe to toe with destroyers, heavily armed and armoured human frigates which had traded speed and manoeuvrability for sheer staying and stopping power. The human's Dreadnought sized cruisers each let off a single XJZ11 shot before moving towards the planet's service, intending to deploy their companies of ODSTs and Marines.

Following the Treaty of Taetrus, a council brokered ceasefire which saw the release of all prisoners and the return of all captured territory, the turians had a chance to step back and simply look at the human vessels. Working with translation programs and studying data from the numerous battles of the Shanxi War the turians provided the following comparison between their own vessel classifications and humanity's:

· Corvette: Turian/Relay Race 90-100 metres in length – Human 150 metres in length

· Frigate: Turian/Relay Race 150 metres in length – Human 470-570 metres in length

· Destroyers: Turian/Relay Race **No Version **– Human 480-580 metres in length

· Light Cruiser: Turian/Relay Race **No Version **– Human 1,170 metres in length

· Cruiser: Turian/Relay Race 500-700 metres in length – Human 1,192 metres in length

· Heavy Cruiser: Turian/Relay Race **No Version **– Human 1,425 metres in length

· Super Heavy Cruiser: Turian/Relay Race **No Version **– Human 1,518 metres in length

· Dreadnought: Turian/Relay Race 900-1,600 metres in length – Human **No Version**

· Carrier: Turian/Relay Race 1,900 metres in length – Human 3,000 metres in length

The Shanxi War saw the first real defeat in battle the turians had suffered since the early days of their involvement in the Krogan Rebellions. The war revealed that while the turians had the largest Navy anywhere in Relay Space, they did not have the strongest. Human vessels where larger, more heavily armed [although each individual mass Accelerator was weaker than a turian one the use of TriFire cannons compensated for it] and had significantly thicker hulls which meant even when their shields fell the ship could still take fire without being destroyed outright.

Human vessels are armed with the following weapons, depending on size:

· M10G Nonlinear Batteries. The numbers vary depending on size of vessel, these laser weapons are employed as part of every ship's Point Defence System. The lasers move at light speed, they cannot be dodged by anything moving at subluminal speeds. Unless the beam is aimed poorly, it will always hit its target. In the early stages of a battle, GARDIAN fire is 100% accurate. It is not 100% lethal, but it doesn't have to be. Damaged fighters must break off for repairs.

· 50mm point-defence guns. These massive automatic turrets are fired in between shots from the M10G batteries. Not as fast moving, nor as powerful, these weapons function best by sending a wall of projectiles at oncoming fighters or missiles forcing hostiles to redirect or be ripped apart by high velocity rounds. Larger vessels sport a considerably larger number.

· Archer missile pods. Ship-to-ship missiles carried by UNSC capital ships for engaging enemy warships in space combat. UNSC ships usually carry large numbers of them, their sheer numbers making up for their underperformance against both kinetic and Energy shielding. Against unshielded hulls however, Archer missiles can be deadly. Each pod consists of thirty missiles, all of which are fired at their target simultaneously with on-board targeting plotting erratic courses to prevent chain detonation should one missile be taken down by enemy defences.

· Vishnu -class Nuclear Missiles. A starship and starfighter-launched thermonuclear weapon used by the UNSC. The Vishnu can be outfitted with various payloads and explosive yields. UNSC forces only use nuclear weapons, such as the Vishnu, when human forces are severely outnumbered, and/or tactical situations that demand the use of such weapons. **{The Vishnu-Class missile is a newer iteration of the Covenant War era Shiva nuclear missiles. The name of this version was chosen in reference to Oppenheimer's quoting of the the Bhagavad-Gita}**

· TriFire Mass Accelerator Cannons. Three linked Mass Accelerators, each capable of propelling a twenty kilo slug at 1.3% the speed of light which share targeting and firing sequences. Each slug impacts with the force of 48 kilotons TNT and while each slug is weaker than the UNSC's earlier Magnetic Accelerator Cannons the drain on power and fire rate from earlier MACs made continuous usage during firefights next to impossible. The number of cannons varies depending on vessel size with frigates having only one while the large Super Heavy Cruisers possess four cannons plus the devastating XJZ11.

· XJZ11 Nonlinear Pulse Cannon. A single, high powered, direct energy weapon so large it can only be mounted to cruisers. This weapon, while unable to deliver a continuous stream of energy unlike the former Covenant's Energy Projector, is able to cripple if not outright destroy any non-Dreadnought vessel fielded by the Relay Races. The superheated, super charged plasma generated and collected by the cannon is fired via innovative use of eezo fuelled Mass Accelerators at close to 1% the speed of light.

· Disruptor torpedoes. Eezo loaded torpedoes which create random and unstable mass effect fields when triggered. These fields warp space-time in a localized area. The rapid asymmetrical mass changes cause the target to rip itself apart. A new addition to the UNSC's arsenal, these weapons are regarded as cheap to manufacture and readily disposable due to humanity's access to large scale, pure Eezo mines scattered throughout both the former Covenant space and newly colonised systems.

To protect their ships humanity makes use of both old and new methods. Up to ten metres of Titanium-50 alloy, which was specifically toughened at the molecular level, and kinetic barriers fed by massive central batteries. While humanity had experimented with using reverse engineered Covenant energy shields on their ships the issue of firing through the shields, which required a portion of the shield to be dropped to allow the projectiles to pass through them, proved problematic. The development of kinetic barriers, which block incoming but not outgoing fire, saw the prothean derived technology win out. To compensate for their shields being comparably weaker than Relay Race versions, and not as effective as Energy Shields, human vessels often come with backup batteries to allow for instant reactivation of shields. Depending on the size of the vessel humans can immediately reactivate their shields, to a limited percentage of total effectiveness, multiple times.

UNSC

The United Nations Space Command Defense Force is the military, exploratory, and scientific agency of the Unified Earth Government. While the UNSC had all but taken complete control of every facet of human government during the Human/Covenant war, either through voluntary passing of power or the effective dismantling of democratic rule throughout the colonies, the outcry over atrocities commented during the suppression of Dark Worlds and the details unearthed during investigation into the White Scandal saw increased civilian oversight which led to the eventual recreation of the United Earth Government and a return to democratic rule. The UNSC's military arm, the UNCSDF, is split into four major branches.

· The UNSC Navy is the branch of the UNSCDF responsible mostly for naval operations in space, though they sometimes operate in the oceans with their terrestrial arm. Its roles include ship-to-ship combat, orbital bombardment, the deployment of atmospheric and space fighters, and the delivery of UNSC Marines, especially ODSTs, into combat. The UNSC Navy is the largest branch of the UNSCDF and arguably the most important. The Navy is vital in protecting trade and enforcing UEG control across all human space while also being the primary protector against alien aggression. While the Navy is not the largest active in Relay Space, that belongs to the turians, it is the most powerful with ships designed and armed to clash against the power of the Jiralhanae Empire. With vessels ranging from a hundred or so metres to over three kilometres long the UNSC Navy is a force that all, former Covenant and Relay Race alike, are hesitant to antagonise.

· The UNSC Air Force is an aerial division of the UNSC Defense Force (UNSCDF) along with the UNSC Army, Navy, and Marine Corps. The UNSC Air Force serves as an aerial defence and support force, primarily deploying from UNSC Navy vessels or from terrestrial airbases. Piloting everything from the latest state-of-the-art Broadsword broadswords to the older but invaluable Albatross, plus everything in between, the pilots of the UNSC Air Force play a key role in the deployment and support of the UNSCDF's primary offensive branch the UNSC Marine Corps.

· The UNSC Marine Corps is a branch of the UNSCDF that is responsible for land-based military operations, as well as the protection of Naval vessels and installations from attack. A rugged and diverse assortment of well-equipped and well trained men and women, one of the Marine Corps' most notable conflicts was fighting against the Covenant's highly superior technology and numbers. Drawing on many military traditions from Earth's history the Corps is the most diversified branch of the UNSCDF with regiments that can trace their deployment history as far back as pre-colonisation of stellar bodies. Years upon years of bloody warfare and harsh training conditions have shaped all marines into lethally efficient killers. While it is generally accepted that the Turian Hierarchy has the most disciplined army of any race operating in Relay Space, with the Asari boasting the most experienced, the UNSC Marine Corps strikes that ideal of numbers and experience. **{Turian grunt is better trained, human vet is better skilled and much more experienced due to a lack of active wars the turians are involved in}. **

· The UNSC Army is a branch of the UNSCDF, primarily responsible for land-based military operations. They deploy primarily from pre-established bases located on a planet's surface as opposed to the Navy vessels that the other branches of the UNSCDF deploy from. The 'shield' to the Marine Corps 'sword' the Army is charged with protecting all UEG aligned colonies, instillations and bases from both foreign and domestic attack. It was thanks to the Army garrison stationed on Shanxi that, although the garrison was all but destroyed, allowed the colony to hold out against the devastating turian attempts at pacification.

Penal Squads

While the idea of sending convicted criminals out as the first wave in battle has existed for centuries the UNCS never officially employed this tactic during the Human/Covenant War. While prisoners were released and armed on several occasions to aid in the defence of colonies it was not until after the war, when the UNSC was attempting to regain control of planets which had seceded from UEG control under cover of the war. Faced with the daunting task of taking these planets, which had avoided the horror and drain of a prolonged war, back to wheel with a greatly exhausted military the decision was made to offer imprisoned insurrectionists a choice; Having explosives implanted into their bodies as insurance and be sent off to fight or face the firing squad. Only a few accepted. Better luck was had with the criminals and political dissidents the insurrectionists had imprisoned. These men and women, bitter and angry at those who had imprisoned them, relished the chance to exact revenge on those like their jailers and gladly took the deal. Nicknamed the Devil Dogs, in reference to a no longer used slang term for Marines, the first incarnation of the Penal Squads were brutal. Promised their freedom in exchange for a set time of service, with rumours of time off for high bodycounts, the criminals tore a bloody path through any and all opposition. By the end of the Dark World Wars many insurrectionist groups would surrender rather than risk having the Devil Dogs massacre them and their families.

The Penal Squads have undergone several major overhauls since those dark days. Now the system serves as a feeder program, preventing members of the numerous street gangs that plague human cities from entering the prison system where they can hone their illicit skills under the eyes of more experienced inmates. Special schemes, geared towards education and upskilling, within the Penal System are common as a way of providing a better chance for the criminals upon release. For those who wish to remain in the military the option to transfer into the Marine Corps with a rank befitting their service record is available. Those who show potential are even offered an Officer Aptitude Evaluation, which allows them to fast-track their way towards becoming commissioned officers. In recent years the UNSC has offered service in the Penal Squads as a means for citizens of Independent Colonies to earn UEG citizenship.

'Dogs of War'

Following the conquest of the Skyllian Verge humanity was left with thousands of batarians living in their territory. As they had assigned the batarians the same rights as civilians they soon had combat trained, but otherwise unskilled, batarians applying to serve in Penal Squads as a way of obtaining full citizenship. While this was allowed on a trial basis the number of 'friendly fire' accidents soon led to the UNSC segregating the batarians. A reshuffling of the Penal Squads soon after led to the batarians and Independent Colonists being assigned to separate squads from the common criminals.

A misreporting of these batarian soldiers caused many to presume humanity was offering contracts to alien mercenaries and resulting in many adventurous asari and more rebellious turians applying for employment. Mixing these mercenaries in with the batarians and humans seeking citizenship led to the passing of the Special Task Force XI Act and a swell of xeno-mercs being sent to face the jiralhanae. Their primary nickname comes from an attempt of humour by a sangheili general quoting Shakespeare.

**{I don't intend to go into too much detail since I have plans for a possible side story that follows a batarian, and several other Xeno-mercs, fighting against the jiralhanae. If/When this story gets going I'll have more info for them then}**

Dark Worlds and Independent Colonies

The original Dark Worlds where a scattered group of planets on which Insurrectionists claimed power during the Human-Covenant War. Falsifying reports that indicated the planets had been decimated by the Covenant and suppressing any and all outgoing signals the Insurrectionists banked on the UNSC being too preoccupied with the war to register their disappearance. They were right, for the most part as the UNSC never suspected that entire colonies worth of resources and weapons existed hidden out there. These colonies were able to remain hidden and flourish for some time before survey vessels, dispatched to access the devastation and lay groundwork for memorials, discovered their existence. What followed was, is and forever shall be the worst crimes ever committed against humanity by humanity. Criminals allowed free reign in 'dealing with' resistance, Marine Corps officers turning a blind eye to the atrocities and all done in the name of a unified humanity. When the Army, who was following behind to oversee the garrisoning of the colonies, came across the slaughter the UNSC faced a full blown mutiny. The risk of losing control of the Army, coupled with shifting public opinion as images and reports of the carnage leaked out, forced the UNSC to crackdown on the Penal Squads and Marines. The horrors of the Dark World Wars contributed to HIGHCOMM handing power back to the UEG, citing the dehumanising effects of the war as why they could no longer lead. Today there are no real Dark Worlds, the term existing mainly as an insult to Independent Colonies and as a warning to planets on the verge of rebellion.

Unlike rebellions on colonies, which are met with brutal and immediate retaliation, the formation of Independent Colonies by groups wishing to live outside UEG governing is accepted. The reason for this is that while rebellions on UEG worlds means the loss of investment, of time and resources to establish the colony, an independent colony has all costs and difficulties covered by the settlers. Another, more practical, reason is that allowing those who would reject the UEG government leave means they don't have to be bothered with. Independent Colonies are often formed as communes based around ideological or religious systems the UEG refusing to accommodate. Independent Colonies however are completely ignored by UNSC patrols, which makes them prime targets for raiders and slavers along humanity's borders. Some critics have noted this exposure to attack often pressures the Independents into eventually accepting UEG rule in exchange for the protection the UNSC offers, effectively granting the UEG a ready to develop colony without the initial start-up cost. Citizens of independent colonies can apply to return to the UEG, as civilians. UEG civilians are unable to vote or hold public office and have further restrictions on careers they may follow. Agreeing to serve time in a Penal Squad, and surviving it, grants full citizenship.

The Office Of Naval Intelligence And Its Successors

The Office of Naval Intelligence was the reason humanity survived their war with the Covenant. Its manipulating of facts to maintain morale, its acquiring and reverse-engineering of alien technology and the horrific crimes it committed to safeguard humanity ensured human survival. These details, or at least what little was publically known about them, meant that ONI grew in power and influence after the war. However the corrupting influence of power, and extreme paranoia, led to several risky actions following the war. The arming of Servants of Abiding Truth and fuelling of the Sangheili Civil War being a major example.

For many years ONI remained the true power in the UNSC, using black-ops and False Flag operations to sabotage any progress towards a return to democracy or any weakening of their influence. But all this ended when one low level data analyst was assigned high clearance by a clerical error. Stumbling onto secret reports detailing the origins of the Spartan-IIs, and the difficulties ONI was facing in establishing a new generation, data analyst Eric White leaked the information to the public. While ONI was able to discredit the information as slander and Insurrectionist propaganda a failed assassination attempt on White prompted HIGHCOMM to launch a full-scale investigation into ONI. This investigation led to the military police, supported by ODSTs, raiding many of ONI's bases. What they found was empty bases, littered with the corpses of low level ONI operative, and empty data stores. Admiral Parangosky, head of ONI, was killed while 'attempting to resist arrest' when MPs moved on her private residence **{Conspiracy theories exist that Parangosky was killed on orders from HIGHCOMM to ensure she did not go to trial and give damning evidence against them}**. On her person was a datapad which had been used to relay a message to all ONI personnel. The word 'Tartarus'.

For some time after ONI disappeared the UNSC was hesitant to risk a repeat. As such intelligence groups where set up and disbanded on an as needed basis. While this ensured no group could become as powerful as ONI had been it also greatly limited the effectiveness of the groups' intelligence gathering capabilities. Eventually the UNSC did establish a permanent intelligence agency, the Naval Intelligence Division, The NID was to be partly under civilian oversight, to provide the morality many career military had been forced to sacrifice to survive the Covenant War, and was under constant scrutiny by a committee comprised of HIGHCOMM officials and UEG investigators. While nowhere near as effective an intelligence agency as ONI had been, the NID is effective enough to gather and supply effective data through a network of spies, remote drones and deep cover agents scattered across UEG territory and beyond.

For nearly fifty years following ONI's disappearance the UNSC refused to replace either its intelligence gathering or its R&D divisions for fear of a repeat. Short term task forces, established to work on a single issue before being dissolved, where used instead. This paranoia, coupled with the loss of the decades of research data ONI had amassed, is believed to have stunted human technological development by close to a century if not more. However, when construction work in Mars' southern region discovered previously unknown alien technology a more permanent group was needed to accurately study the new technology. This group slowly expanded to encompass all UNSC funded research, with each new duty bringing more and more scrutiny to prevent abuse. Eventually the group was turned into the Department of Research and Development, DRD. While the DRD now studies any and all alien technology its primary objective is the study, reverse-engineering and improvement of Mass Accelerator technology… A task which became infinitely easier once the Terminus Systems' black market as discovered. Using humanity's vast resources to procure weapons and armour the DRD studied, dismantled, studied, reassembled and studied the equipment as a means to bridge the gap between humanity and the Relay Races.

The Shanxi War

A nine month long war between the Turian Hierarchy and the UNSC **{Canonical First Contact War lasted three months, and saw a little over a thousand casualties total}**. The name comes from its main event, the Siege of Shanxi, where the turian military spent the six months it took the UNSC to fortify the surrounding systems and gear up for Total War trying to take what they thought was the human homeworld. The fighting was so intense, and the human resistance so fierce, that the turians were forced to use safe camps and their hastatim execution squads, which have only ever been needed against the turians themselves. When the UNSC relieved Shanxi the planet's garrison of UNSC Army soldiers had suffered near total destruction and the civilian population had been cut nearly in half but resistance was still strong.

While the turians held the advantage in ground combat, better technology and access to biotics allowing them to inflict massive casualties, they were unable to deal with many of humanity's tactics. Moves such as ditching shields, whose energy signatures can be tracked, to allow for ambushes, and turning the weapons of fallen turians against them were things the turians never considered in battle. The human use of IEDs, either simple shrapnel bombs or the more advanced 'thermite surprises', made foot patrols incredibly risky while the armour piercing capabilities of most human weapons limited the effectiveness of turian APCs. The level of resistance and brutal attacking prowess of the humans led general Desolas Arterius to christen the humans 'Nodra Krogatz', the 'Next Krogan' **{this is the turian's scientific name for humanity like how our own scientific name for human is 'Homo Sapiens Sapiens' or 'Wise Man Wise'}**.

When the UNSC Navy arrived and decimated the turian ships above Shanxi the turians initially thought they were under attack by another race, of whom the humans must have been a client race. This was due to the sheer size of human vessels and their use of plasma weaponry. Ship mounted easily predicting the turian tactics, and a considerably thicker hull, meant that turians could not match the enemy vessels in battle unless they had a significant numerical advantage.

While it is rarely mentioned, many observers believe that had the Council not stepped in the turians would have ultimately lost. The use of Slipspace, plus their atomic and plasma, weaponry meant that humanity have simply 'Glassed' the turian worlds and moved on without needing to ever engage in ground battles where they were at the disadvantage.

**{I don't intend to go into too much detail since I am considering telling the story of the Shanxi War either through flashbacks by characters who were there as an independent side story} **

**Alien Races**

Sangheili

A bipedal race hailing from Sanghelios the sangheili here one of the two founding races of the Covenant Religion, in which the served as the primary military caste. Physically superior to humans, and possessing technology well beyond anything the humans can develop, the sangheili battled against the UNSC for the majority of the Human-Covenant War. Following their betrayal by Prophets, and the schism in the Covenant, the sangheili fought alongside humanity to end the empire they had formed. Following the war centuries old grievances and difficulty adjusting to existence outside of the Covenant's caste system led to a Civil War. When ONI's involvement in the Civil War was revealed the tension between the sangheili and humanity boiled over culminating in the Isstvan massacre, where a sangheili fleetmaster refused to render aid to the UNSC's Third Fleet which was attempting to 'break the back' of jiralhanae power.

During the near century of isolation which followed the sangheili found themselves struggling to adapt and survive the massive social changes they were undergoing as well as steady and aggressive attacks by the jiralhanae. Under pressure from the numerically superior jiralhanae the sangheili were forced to end their acceptance of the status quo and begin innovating with weaponry. Much like humanity the prolonged war led to rapid advancement with weapons like the T-55 Directed Energy 'Storm' Rifle being developed. By the time dialogue was re-established with humanity the sangheili vastly overpowered the jiralhanae in terms of weapons and shielding but lacked the numbers to fight aggressively. Bartering access to older weapons systems, and mineral rights to resources not vital to sangheili interests, in exchange for assistance with agriculture and military support the sangheili have since reclaimed all their former territory and begun taking planets from the jiralhanae.

Interaction between the sangheili and the Citadel Council has mostly been limited **{suspected to be a deliberate action by humanity to prevent Relay Races bartering aid in exchange for technology} **with only one official meeting between representatives, a meeting brokered by humanity. The sangheili seemed to show some measure of respect for the turians, information gleamed from humanity about the Shanxi War having shown the turians to be a powerful and effective military force. The sangheili interaction with the other diplomats was not as good, the representative showing little interest in the asari delegate's words and found the salarian's dalatrass highly condescending. Other than this one meeting the sangheili only ever really see Relay Race species when human hired mercenaries support Penal Squads during joint-ops against the jiralhanae.

Jiralhanae

Following the dissolution of the Human-Sangheili alliance in 2363 the jiralhanae tribes found themselves with time to recover and regroup. Due to their tribal government and less time in the Covenant's caste system the jiralhanae adapted to life without the Covenant faster, uniting under a new and powerful Chieftain of the Jiralhanae. This chieftain then sent his fleets to capture and secure the homeworlds of the other former Covenant races, providing him with the resources and military force needed to begin expanding jiralhanae control.

The jiralhanae are currently locked in a brutal war against the humans and sangheili while simultaneously using garrisons and the threat of Glassing to suppress rebellions from the other races within their 'empire'. They have had no contact with the Relay Races and where it not for the Dogs of War it would be possible they are would not even aware of the existence of such races.

Turian

An avian race hailing from Palaven, the turians have served as the military power behind the Citadel Council ever since their involvement in ending the Krogan Rebellions. Possessing the largest standing army, and allowed the largest amount of dreadnoughts under the Treaty of Farixen, the Turian Hierarchy has filled the role of Peacekeeper for over a millennium. The turians where the first Relay Race to encounter humanity, and the only Relay Race to declare war against the UEG. The Shanxi War, named for the planet the majority of the war was fought on, lasted for a total of nine months and saw some of the most intense and bloody battles the Hierarchy had partaken in for centuries.

Following the Council brokered treaty, signed above the occupied turian world of Taetrus, the turians found themselves forced to play buffer between the rest of the Citadel Races and this new race. When talks aimed at bringing humanity into the galactic community broke down, humanity's refusal to bow to pre-existing treaties and salarian attempts to steal classified data being the primary reasons, a solo attempt at talks by the turians fares much better but still fails. The decision to release the designs for what humans would later call HOLOPADs by the turians as a good-will gesture aids in a second round of talks which secures a Non-Aggression Agreement between the Hierarchy and UEG. Since then the two governments had signed minor trade agreements while their respective militaries have occasionally run joint operations against Terminus System pirates and slave raiders who operated along the border areas.

The Shanxi War showed the turians, and Relay Races at large, that while the turians may possess the largest military they did not have the most powerful fighting force. Their soldiers lacked the experience and instincts that only long-term combat can provide, their ground forces only winning thanks to superior numbers and hardware. This insight into their shortcomings has led to an increasing number of cases where the turians adopt a more active approach to dealing with Terminus pirates as a way to increase the experience of their troopers. The way also showed several flaws in their ship construction techniques, namely in the inability of the hull or the shield generators to handle extreme temperatures. Joint research with the Salarian Union saw the turians attempt to counter these issues by perfecting Cyclonic Barrier Technology (CBT). By rotationally firing their mass effect field projectors ships create rapidly oscillating kinetic barriers instead of static ones a CTB equipped ship should be able to deflect the plasma generated by XJZ11 instead of just stopping the plasma, allowing it to 'sit' atop their shields and radiate out enough heat to compromise the ship's hull beneath. Thankfully, for all concerned, the turians have never tested this theory as the peace between the Hierarchy and the UEG still holds.

*Interesting Note* the Flood is unable to infect the quarians due to their dextro-amino acid nature.

Asari

A humanoid, mammalian species the asari where the first race of the current cycle to discover the Citadel. Believing in negotiation over battle the asari are often regarded as a race of scholars and diplomats. Possessing a robust cellular regenerative system the average asari can live up to one thousand years, discounting illness or injury. A race of natural biotics the asari military, while small in comparison to the likes of say the turian military, is one to be feared and respected. Due to their potentially millennium long lifetime the biotic commandos the Asari Republics send against their enemies are regarded as some of the most dangerous soldiers in the known galaxy.

The asari first learned of the existence of humanity in the final weeks of the Shanxi War, when the Turian Hierarchy began to pull all peacekeeping troops back and started to gear for Total War. Working with the Salarian Union the asari discovered that the turians where engaged in a brutal and bloody war against a paradoxically technologically inferior/superior race. Rushing to intervene the asari flagship, the Will of Thessia, managed to enter the Mactare system just before what would be the final battle of the war. The arrival of the dreadnought inadvertently broke the stalemate that had developed between humanity's Fifth Fleet and the assembled turian armada **{Both races mistook it as the first arrival of turian reinforcements}**. In the ensuing battle the asari struggled to get both sides to stand down as the Will of Thessia took considerable damage. The battle was finally stopped when on-board salarian agents managed to hack the turian COMMs system and retrieve all gathered linguistic data preluding to humanity.

When humanity finally agreed to a permanent ceasefire, as increased jiralhanae activity had them concerned about attempting to fight on two massive fronts, the asari went ahead with what they felt was the next logical step, inducting humanity as a Council associate race. These talks failed when humanity straight up refused to downsize its fleet to match the Treaty of Farixen, on the grounds that they needed their fleets strong to fight the jiralhanae, and their utter refusal to even consider accepting the Citadel's restrictions/ban on . When humanity walked away from the talks it was with no form of treaty or agreement between the UEG and the Asari Republics **{This has since changed, with small-scale trade between the space ports of Shanxi and Illium}. **While several Matriarchs used to rapid changes and uncertainty that the discovery of humanity, and its powerful military, caused to push for a more militarised asari their electronic democracy saw these 'warhawks' outvoted by those who chose to see humanity as potential trader partners and possible mates. as such the asari military has seen little to no change following humanity's appearance on their radar, save the adoption of carriers.

Salarian

The salarians are a warm-blooded amphibian race that serve as the technical experts of the Council, providing both cutting edge technology and near constant intelligence gathered from just about every source possible. Officially the Salarian Union became aware of humanity at the same time as the asari but their constant infiltration of turian channels means they most likely knew about the younger race much sooner.

Always needing to be at the pinnacle of technological ability the salarians have the most hostile relationship with humanity, unhappy at humanity's refusal to provide the details of their plasma weaponry or the secrets of Slipspace travel. The UNSC's counterintelligence agency is constantly uncovering salarian cyber-warfare incursions which are capable of penetrating all but A.I encoded encryptions. The salarians, simply practicing what they do on every race while hiding behind their mutual defence treaty with the turians, are constantly forced to declare any STG taskforces discovered as 'having gone rogue' to avoid the full extent of humanity's retaliation.

The salarians are the only Council Race without any form of trade with humanity, all products going either are purchased second-hand from turian retailors with the relevant licenses. They are also the race who is most vocal about taking humanity into line with Council laws, the outlawing of and distributing of technological data retrieved from both the Prothean runs on Mars and humanity's independent development.

Other Citadel Races

The volus benefit from all trade agreements humanity has with the Hierarchy due to their status as a 'client race'. The hanar and drell have some minor trade with humanity, via the turians, but it is rather limited. The elcor, whose products are not all too useful to humans, have no exports to humanity but to import a notable amount of high-grade palladium and iridium produced by human companies.

Batarian

The turians first became aware of humanity following the Shanxi War but did not make first contact until sometime later when humanity, with a higher population growth rate and more effective terraforming techniques, began advancing into the Skyllian Verge. While the batarians tried to have the Council declare the region of 'batarian interest' in an attempt to prevent human expansion the fact that the UEG/UNSC was not a Citadel Race meant any declaration would just be ignored. Angered by the Council's refusal to assist the Hegemony closed its embassy and decided to fund and arm pirates and slavers from the Terminus Systems in the hopes of making the humans think the Verge was too hostile to bother with.

This policy backfired spectacularly in 2578 when humanity raided the slaver based on Torfan. Uncovering damning evidence that the Hegemony was using its colonies in the Verge to finance attacks on human worlds, both UEG and Independent, the UNSC was sent to 'secure human interests in the region and end possible dangers to human expansion.' On July 7th 2578 the batarians received on uncoded message warning that they should have 'let sleeping dogs lie' and an official announcement that humanity intended to annex all of the Skyllian Verge. In a series of Slipspace attacks the UNSC broke the back of the batarian military and forced them back to the Kite's Nest cluster. Hundreds of thousands of batarians where left behind on their occupied planets at the tender 'mercy' of a race they had been informed where monstrous. Humanity offered a simple choice to all batarians in the Verge, remain on your worlds as civilians of the UEG **{Effectively making them no different to Independent Colonists who returned to UEG space} **or be transported to the Kite's Nest and return to Hegemony governance. Almost 100% of the lower castes chose to remain while close to 70% of the upper caste members fled. Many former batarian military and state police officers now serve in the Penal Squads, using a loophole that allows them to earn full citizenship just like Independent Colonists can.

The Batarian Hegemony, their military all but destroyed by human assaults in the Verge or desertion, now find itself too busy trying to protect their remaining worlds from attack by the very pirates and slavers it had once funded and supplied.

Krogan

Humanity and the krogan have never officially made first contact due to the krogan lacking any form of unified government the UEG can deal with. The distances between their territories, and that krogan territory is in the middle of a DMZ, being the main cause for this. Humanity is aware of them due to encounters with the Blood Pack, and later mercenaries hired to fight for humanity, and generally holds a 'case-by-case' opinion of the race.

The same information mostly holds true for the vorcha as well.

Geth

Despite multiple attempts to contact the synthetic race humanity has not made first contact with them. Almost all attempts have resulted in their signals being ignored, a single reply of 'begone' was received once. While humanity, and their , have considerable interest in meeting the geth the foreseeable future see no contact between the two races.

Quarian

Humanity first made contact with the quarians in 2565 when several quarian scout ships enter a human controlled system. After a tense first encounter where humanity threatened to destroy the ships if they did not relocate, as they had entered the system in the coordinates the sangheili used for emerging from Slipspace, the two races managed less than two hours of diplomatic talks before quarian bias against led to humanity simply telling them to go away. Now standard policy is for the Migrant Fleet to announce itself before entering human territory, be provided an armed escort away from any potential Slipspace Exit points and sent on their way.

Some quarians, mostly those on pilgrimage, can be seen on humanity's outer colonies working and providing technical advice for money. A much smaller number elect to serve as mercenaries in human employment, being sent to act as combat engineers alongside Penal Squads against the jiralhanae for large sums of credits.

*Interesting Note* the Flood is unable to infect the quarians due to their dextro-amino acid nature.

**Original Characters Of Note Who Will Be Mentioned In Background Talk Or In The Dogs Of War Side Story **

Wotanizus

A minor jiralhanae chieftain who earned his position by killing his former commander. A young nephew of the Chief of all Jiralhanae Wotanizus has vision and an intense desire to find out the source of humanity's new technology and use it to further strengthen the Jiralhanae Empire. A rarity amongst his race, Wotanizus believes defeat can be more beneficial than victory if you learn from it and refuses to punish defeated sub-commanders if they fail. Respected by the jiralhanae under his command, and beloved by the unggoy, Wotanizus will do whatever he feels will most benefit his people.

Joww Bal'serah

A lower caste batarian biotic who trained in the special intervention unit, batarian special forces. Born on Camala he and his family remained when humanity offered the chance to leave or stay. Fighting to earn full citizenship, and so his wages will pay for his sibling's education, Joww is a brutal and effective shock trooper. His call sign of 'Spike' comes from his use of a jiralhanae Type-25 Carbine in place of a standard issue ICW. **{ An Early version appeared in a short scene in chapter 18 of Chaos in the Cosmos}**

Weyrloc Grawl

An old and powerful krogan battlemaster, Grawl is the uncle of Chief Weyrloc Guld and one of the original krogan to take control of the Blood Pack from the vorcha. Old enough to remember the Rebellions Grawl has survived a millennium and a half of warfare by being the biggest, toughest and most dangerous thing on the battlefield. A beneficial genetic mutation has left Grawl a giant of a krogan, easily as large and as strong as a jiralhanae, the battlemaster earned his call sign of 'Hunter-Killer', or simply 'HK', by actively seeking out mgalekgolo to kill "For the challenge".

Vas Nedas

The quarian known as Vas Nedas, quarian for 'crew of nowhere', is a former quarian marine exiled for the attempted murder of an Admiral. Following his exile Vas Nedas has become loyal to the mission alone and will not hesitate to abandon his fellow soldiers if doing so will ensure the mission's success, he will not hesitate to sacrifice himself for the mission either. His call sign, Visor, refers both to the faceplate of his environment suit and the fact he has replaced the quarian programed VIs in his suit with a modified VISR. ** {This guy is basically HUNK from Resident Evil, only with just two fingers and weird legs}.**

**_XXXXX_**

**_And I'm ending this here because I don't want to double the word count of No Pease. Last wee bits are as follows:_**

**_Council opinions of humans is different to canon; Turians are supportive, asari are neutral and salarians are hostile._**

**_ONI and their research was wiped out to prevent humanity being WAY too overpowered. ONI still exists, as the backers/real power behind Cerberus._**

**_Covenant Remnants {Badguys from Halo 4} are still around but slightly different. Here they are a cult that opposes changes to sangheili ways and refuses to use newer technology, sticking to the older Covenant Era plasma rifles etc._**

**_{Not really in relation to the fic, but to my writing. Please note if something is marked by XX a location and then XX that is a scene change. If there is a – and then something like a date or a note about time in there, that means there is a time difference between this event and whatever came before it! Pay attention to that, because this story will see flash-forwards and flashbacks as time goes on}_**

**_This is Highvalour saying, hope this helped and if you_**

**_Got more questions post them on the forum._**

**_I will answer and it saves repeats if people go there._**


	6. Prologue Helljumper - Pt2

**_More of Shepard's training to become and ODST._**

**_Another chapter, another attempt to entertain you all. I honestly do not have anything else to add, so on with the show!_**

**_Halo belongs to Microsoft Studios_**

**_Mass Effect belongs to belongs to Bioware_**

**_XXXXX_**

XX Setanta Base; Acheron Fossae, Mars – 2575 XX

The Orbital Drop Shock Troopers drew heavily from the numerous Special Forces units Earth's multitude of governments once possessed. Squad makeup and operating tactics from America's Navy Seals, hand signals and use of languages as coding plucked from Britain's Special Air Services… Training and conditioning taken from the toughest of the Russian Spetsnaz GRU. They expected the best and so put all potential members through the worst they could. Physical and mental exercises where specifically designed to push participants to the limit, specifically designed to ensure only the best of the best of the best passed.

The marines who had been members of Hastati Squad; Lieutenants Shepard and Lang, Sergeant Masaki and Corporal Malone, had passed the 'War Games' stage and where now going through the first round of individual testing. Studying old battle reports, compiling lists on where certain units went wrong or did well, and outlining how you think the missions should have gone. All to help develop tactical thinking and breed innovation in the way the marines approach completing the mission.

On top of these lessons each and every candidate had to complete set training courses, each designed to focus on different attributes such as stamina or endurance. The courses where designed by veteran Helljumpers and where created to push and improve the soldiers, not break them. Setanta Base's medical staff where all well trained in treated bruises, blisters and joint swelling. They wanted the peak of human ability, not broken men to crippled to serve.

"Move it, move it!" The Staff Sergeant overseeing the day's training exercise. Cross nearly a km of trenches, ditches and obstacles. In poor lighting. While Instructors fired off ICWs randomly to startle you. It'd be the third time in as many weeks that Shepard ran that particular course and he was determined to hit the target time on this run.

Dropping down from the ledge he'd climbed onto Shepard rolled as he hit the soft dirt beneath him and was up and running with little to no loss of momentum. Trying to maintain a good speed without losing his footing Shepard raced across the boggy ground, ignoring the muzzle flashes and roars of automatic fire. Diving forward Shepard landed in one of the long trenches, covered by electrified barbed wire, and began to crawl through the sludge and shit that had built up.

"Faster! Faster now! Move it, move it." One of the Staff Sergeant's fellow overseers screamed as he fired bursts of low velocity rounds over Shepard's head. "You're blocking up the course you lazy sonofa- Move it now!"

Picking up the pace Shepard made it out of one trench only to have to dive into another, this one filled with icy water. Yelping in shock at the sudden temp change Shepard waded forward and pulled himself out the other side.

'_Pick up the pace. C'mon get it done.'_ Shepard mentally screamed as he ignored his body's natural desire to curl of and preserve heat, if he got hypothermia the doctors could treat it easy. Breaking into a full sprint Shepard had the momentum to make it maybe four or five foot up the climb wall before he needed to grab the handgrips. Pulling himself up Shepard scaled the wall, setting a personal best in the process, and rolled down the slope on the far side. Panting and heaving Shepard pushed on, crossing the finish line a minute later.

"Shepard?" The overseer at the end asked before typing something into the console in front of her, pulling up his times. "Better than before, but still nothing to write home about."

"Thanks." Shepard managed to get out without letting his teeth chatter. Taking a copy of his time Shepard set off for base in search of a desperately needed hot shower and some warm clothes, because terraformed or not Mars was still a bloody cold hunk of rock.

After taking a little longer than normal under the water, the heat helped with the aches in his muscles, Shepard towelled off and opened the locker he'd left his spare kit in.

"How'd it go Lieutenant?" A voice asked.

"Not bad Masaki, I'm about nine seconds off the course record." Shepard laughed as the older Sergeant passed him and stored her own change of clothing in one of the lockers. "That puts me about seven seconds away from the target… What's your best time so far?"

"I'm about two seconds off the target." Masaki smirked as she activated the locker's small internal heater. "Which means I'm about five seconds faster than you, Sir."

"So I'd finish after you would, I'm good with that." Shepard said as he pulled on his fatigues and grabbed his boots.

"Keep dreaming Sir, it ain't gonna happen." Masaki snorted before she the rest of her group entered the locker room and began prepping for their attempts at the course.

"Not your type, huh?" Shepard sighed dramatically as he finished lacing up. Grabbing his soaking gear Shepard waved bye and left, muttering all the way. "Story of my life."

Dropping off his gear for collection, he didn't pity whoever had laundry duty that night, and then lying back on his bunk Shepard pulled up a datapad and started cramming. He had an examination on battlefield tactics the next day, and they'd chosen the Fall of Reach as the subject matter. That meant he was looking at thousands of possible scenarios, almost all no-win, to be tested on and a very limited time to study.

XX UNSC Fire of Sol; Orbit over Mars – Three Months Later XX

Klaxons blared and warning lights flashed as the cryo-chambers opened and the marines 'thawed'. As he came too Shepard collapsed to the floor and vomited out most of the bronchial surfactant, it'd caught in his throat. After wiping his mouth and doing a quick pat down to check for freezer burn or joint seizing Shepard turned to the marine to his right.

"You good?" He yelled over the klaxons.

"Yes sir." The marine answered before giving Shepard a quick look over. "You?"

"Fine Corporal." Shepard said before turning to his left where he found the Air Force officer, if the tattoos on her arms and chest where anything to go by, looking him over. Their eyes met, the question went unasked but was communicated, and both nodded.

Satisfied the two where fine Shepard got up and moving, joining the mass of marines thundering down the corridors towards the armouries.

Finding his locker Shepard quickly punched in his code and started suiting up. First came the Kevlar undersuit, heavy bi-weave of fibres designed to withstand small arms fire and aid in heat absorption, which was followed by the titanium/ceramic plating. Powerful electromagnetic locks held the plates in place and assisted in providing the environmental seals on the Battle Dress Uniform. As the faceplate on his helmet polarised the VISR MK.7 ran its systems check. When the OS confirmed he was good Shepard grabbed his guns, an ICW and suppressed Mass Accelerator-Misriah 7 Submachine Gun variant, and attached them to the magnetic strips on the back of his armour.

Dropping his pistol into its leg holster as he moved to exit the armoury Shepard fell in behind two other candidates as he moved towards the drop pod bay. Entering the bay Shepard instinctively scanned the area, taking in the levelled walkways and stairs he needed to descend.

"Screw it." Shepard snorted before trying something he hadn't done since his time in the Reds, and had never attempted while wearing heavy armour. Turning to his right Shepard vaulted over the guard railing and, having twisted as he fell, caught hold of the railing on the level below. Releasing his grip Shepard dropped another level before catching hold of the guard rail. Releasing again Shepard fell to the bay's 'ground floor' and turned to rush forward, nearly ploughing into the overseer for the test.

"That anxious to drop, Lieutenant?" The Major asked before stepping aside and letting Shepard pass. As Shepard stepped around her, a bit sheepish over nearly running into her, the Major checked her watch and chuckled. "Under seven minutes, just made it."

Making his way over to the others who passed the test Shepard looked over the IFFs for any familiar names. Spotting Lieutenant Leng Shepard joined his fellow Marine. As the klaxons died down, signifying the end of the test, Shepard watched as the overseer approached studying a datapad.

"Downes, step forward." The Major ordered as she advanced up the line.

"Sir." Downes said as he stepped away from the rest.

"You're Infantry, sent over from the Army." The Major didn't ask, just stated.

"Someone didn't follow wake-up protocol." Shepard hissed to Leng.

"That's correct Lieutenant, but I don't remember giving you permission to speak." The Major snapped before turning back to Downes. "Since you're Army, I imagine you don't have much need for cryo-pods. Would that be correct?"

"No Sir, cryo is only used when travelling to or from deployment on forward bases Sir." Downes answered, facing straight ahead but Shepard guessed he was being eyed.

"Then you would never have woken up without a medical team there making sure everything is peachy, eh Corporal?" The Major asked in that sickeningly false sweetness only a woman can manage.

"N-No Sir." Downes replied, somehow keeping most of the nervousness out of this voice.

"Then you would not have been drilled to follow basic wake-up protocol?" The Major asked sweetly before her voice turned icy cold. "Even though it was repeated three separate times in the manuals and reading material each and every one of you were given to study before this part of your training?"

"I-Eh, bu-" Downes stuttered.

"The reason that medical team was there every time you woke up is because one in fifty thousand exhibit an allergic reaction to cytoprethaline, with one in two hundred thousand at risk of developing an intolerance to it over time." The Major began, really tearing into the GI over his mistake. "One in four million are also at risk of anaphylactic shock caused by the bronchial surfactant… By not taking a few seconds to ensure your team mates are safe and healthy you might end up condemning them to death and risk the wellbeing of the remainder of your squad by leaving them shorthanded!"

"Cut the boy some slack, Major." An old, gruff voice rang out as a Colonel descended the stairs behind the candidates. "He's Army. I'm sure he'd studied the manual but, in the heat of the moment, he just slipped up on something that isn't second nature yet… So, instead of failing him outright just add ninety seconds to his time."

"Yes Sir." The Major's salute was mimicked by the candidates as soon as the Colonel entered their field of vision. "Downes, time penalty puts you over the seven minute time. Leave, stow your gear and re-join the others awaiting transport back to Setanta Base."

"… Sir." Downes said before turning on his heel and storming out.

"You nine passed and as such, as a little taste of what's to come, you will be heading back a different way." The Colonel announced as the holographic avatar of the ship's A.I flickered into being behind him.

"Pods active and waiting Colonel, ready to drop." Agni, the Fire of Sol's A.I, chuckled.

"Good. Now cadets, pick a pod and stow your gear." The Colonel's words had barely left his mouth and the troops were moving, rushing to the pods and their first real drop.

Sure they'd done simulated training, studied and prepped but this was it. They did good here and their chances would be looking good. As Shepard closed his pod and double-checked his environmental seals a message popped up on his HUD.

_See you ground side Red._

Laughing to himself Shepard leaned forward and flashed a thumbs up at Leng. As the Colonel walked around, checking to ensure no one was gonna attempt entry with the window open, Shepard closed his eyes and did what he always did when nervous. He started to pray.

"Our Father, which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy Name. " Shepard muttered as Agni began the countdown. Shepard's 'amen' transitioned into a string of curse words as the claps holding them released on 'Two' and he, along with six other hopefuls, accelerated towards the Martian surface.

_**XXXXX**_

_**Bit short but I got other stuff going on so it was short or delayed.**_

_**Next chapter should see the end of the training and will advance the plot to the rest of Shepard's service record. Between now and the Eden Prime run there's the end of training, Shepard's first mission as ODST, the Tyran Outbreak and one other big deployment that'll serve as his career defining moment [in place of the canon three choices].**_

**_I'm dyslexic, so please point out any mistakes in spelling or grammar [I spell things the way they do in England and Ireland, so some things may look off to Americans]. Please leave your opinion via review or send them via PM, I'd like to know what you think. _**

**_Well, I think that's everything I've gotta say so, hope you enjoyed the chapter._**

**_This is Highvalour saying bye and thanks for reading._**


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